florin

I do a decent amount of weekend trips to visit friends and family (in various locations). I leave Friday evening after work and return Sunday evening. Since these are leisure trips and they come out of my own pocket, and being that I do this quite a bit, I'm looking for the cheapest fares. All last year I was happy with NW - they were great for all these trips. In the past 2-3 months though it has been impossible to get anything decent for Sunday flights. The only fares I can touch are 6am and occasionally something like 9am. ALL afternoon and evening flights are 2 to 3 times more. Flights to DC also got expensive. What gives? I understand that there are some supply and demand issues here, but I have noticed a drastic change lately.

Naturally, I took my $ somewhere else and started flying US as they seem to have consistently good prices for Sunday evenings.

Is NW completely giving up on leisure travel?

jiburi

I've had similar experiences. I've rarely found K class inventory on my preferred flight times, Friday eve outbound, Sunday eve return. Luckily, Delta hasn't been so stingy on availability. While I won't get the upgrade, the price is right and I can continue to earn NW miles. As for Continental, I've virtually stopped flying them due to 50% EQM. I like their first class product but with 50% EQM on discounted ticket, it's hardly worth it.

Jiburi

DTWflyer

I have noticed this too as well.

If the route has competition e.g., DTW-PHL, DTW-ATL, etc. then this doesn't occur as much and the flights are generally priced the same throughout the day on Friday & Sunday.

A route without competition like DTW-RDU is where you really start to notice how they jack up the Sunday afternoon /evening fares. In some ways, its more advantageous to hop the 6am Monday morning flight, and just come in a little bit late to work.

SchmutzigMSP

Hardly. Friday afternoon/evening and Sunday afternoon/evening are prime Consultant Caravan™ flights. A lot of people fly home after work on Friday and fly back Sunday evening so they can be in the office by Monday AM.

Best I can say is to watch the fares regularly. You may find that the price drops as they open up K/T class fares anywhere from 3-7 days before the flight. I speak from experience having been purchasing these types of tickets (Fri. Eve - Sun. Eve flights) since November on a weekly basis.

avidflyer

Sunday and Friday are two of the busiest business travel days. Leisure travel days are considered Sat outbound and returning Tues/Weds. You will find the best pricing for those days. I am one of those Friday/Sunday business travelers just about every week.

hobo13

Or it could be more non-competitive NWA pricing.....

JTMSP

Just speaking to the DC fares, flights to DCA always get crazy expensive in the spring and early summer. With the Cherry Blossoms and all those school trips, there is good demand. Try IAD, I find it consistently less expensive than DCA, albeit a hassle to get to the District without a car.

Also, as others have stated, Friday night and Sunday night are peak travel times. NW charges what the market will bear, and people are willing to pay more for those prime arrival and departure times.

yogimax

Precisely! We have to realize that Northwest needs to maximize profits in order to survive in a highly competitive environment. This means charging more for flights that are in high demand.

CmdrThor

But if they are filling the planes, why should they offer lower prices?

bocastephen

Over the past couple years, NW prices have gone through the roof for almost every itinerary I've priced, for myself as well as others. Maybe 1 try in 10 will return NW flights priced competitively.

I used to fly on NW tickets exclusively, split between CO and NW on Fri/Sun between FLL and DCA (before 50% EQM) - then the prices went through the roof because availability was zeroed out at everything under M class.

CO, DL and US continue to offer seats at competitive fares on all my routes and their aircraft are full - and in the case of CO and DL, they are actually making a profit - while NW continues to skip along with one foot in bankruptcy and a poor product that is more aligned with US than NW's other partners.

I just did 4 segments last weekend on NW - for example, the Red Carpet was neither pointed out or used by the agents once during any of the boarding calls, and I only saw one eligible customer even try to use it during the general boarding. Their continued haphazard and disorganized management of basic services at the field level is simple amazing to me - why can't this airline ever get it's act together and offer consistent service delivery?

SchmutzigMSP

I think the phrase "your mileage may vary" couldn't fit any more closely to your situation unless you invented the phrase yourself.

If CO/DL work best, then more power to you. Northwest is turning a profit and they are due to exit bankruptcy very shortly. While I wholly disagree with your assertion that the NW product is closer to US than their other partners, you certainly have a right to feel the way you do. You pointed out the carpets. CO has had theirs for some time now and has had a chance to see how customers use it and refine their boarding process to make it work best for them. DL? Not a carpet in sight. I'd rather have a carpet that I need to clear my throat when standing at as opposed to having none at all. But, as always, YMMV.

born sleepy

Naw. Take the bus to the West Falls Church metro stop. With DC traffic this surely beats trying to drive.

Well I don't consider this to be a hassle anyway

florin

I'd like to reiterate that I was noticing prices for Sunday afternoon/evening flights being far greater LATELY. I am aware of the fact that prices vary for different times and different days; I'm not complaining about the trend itself. I know it's cheaper to fly Sat/Wed/Tue, etc. I

I'm also not talking about non-competitive routes, which is why I went for the competition (for these weekend trips I switched to US).

Until now I have been willing to pay a little more to fly on a Sun (as opposed to a Sat) and in the afternoon or evening as opposed to 6am. My impression is that prices for the Sun evening flights on NW are out of control and I'm not willing to pay 2 or 3 times more. Boooo!

SchmutzigMSP

Maybe on that route, but you'd be largely mistaken if you assumed that for the entire route structure.

For example, Sunday evening MSP-MCO flights have been very reasonable for the last few months, likely due to competition with FL and SY.