gnaget

United screwed up my *A airpass. (They were very nice in offering compensation by cutting $400 off my transatlantic but that's another story.) So I needed to buy my European segments separately as there was no H class on any flights and two of these were on SK.

The main issue was ARN-BRU. I wanted to fly on Apr 28 and all three flights were C or Y only, starting at about SEK 5000 one way. A few days earlier they had some Eco class for about half the price but they had disappeared. Guess everyone wants to go to BRU on Monday and the flights are very full, eh? They had something thru OSL but the times and connections were not good. I checked SN Brussels and they had flex tickets for about SEK 2000. So I decided to book that on Apr 25. I have actually never flown out of Bromma so thought it would be fun.

But then for the hell of it I checked the SAS website on Apr 26 and they had a cheap ($185) K class ARN-CPH-BRU with only 40 min connection in CPH at an optimal time (10 min before the CPH-BRU flight and you only get in one hour later. Not bad.) So I cancel the SN Brussels ticket.

So I book the CPH connection flight. Then I ask at check-in if they could put me on the non-stop. No go. I go to the lounge and see that the CPH flight is delayed 10 min for starters. I leave the lounge around 35 min before the flights (now at the same time 16:30) and notice that there is now a service desk below the lounge. (Good move by SAS!) There are 4 people there and all are free. I check out all four of them and pick the one that might be helpful. I explain that my flight is delayed and could mis-connect in CPH. Sure enough she is helpful and puts me on it after calling the gate and a lot of typing. She also proactively put me in row 20 (exit of the MD80). Sweet; I was thinking that I would get a middle seat in P class on this "full flight". I get my BP and it is BN 74. So the MD80 is about half full. Y was all the way to row 17 and about 1/3 full. I got the entire DEF of row 20 to myself.

So, they don't offer anything but full fare on a half full flight?? Interesting..... And meanwhile SN Brussels offers half the price for a flex ticket from a more convenient airport for most passengers........

SK_RSJ

Space management in CPH actually invited us for a meetig when at the A319 DO. Don´t know what happened to that? Would be interesting to ask these questions.
As for full fare/empty planes, this is something they do very regularly. I guess/hope it is on purpose to protect the higher fare products but I am more and more getting this feeling that space management dept is not as smart as you first think. After all, they are in the hands of SAS IT.

gnaget

Yeah, but this is completely counterproductive by inventory management and they have real competition here from SN Brussels. Why not take it a step further and go back to the legacy Sat night model where all one way is full fare and get rid of the P class concept?

SEK 5000 is a lot of money. Do they think that the business is all EU bureaucrats and politicians who are completely price insensitive? Sure enough a person near me as I was deplaning (from P class) had a disgusting tote bag with some slogans from Miljopartiet. I thought those nutjobs were supposed to travel by train even it takes 3 weeks to get there? (Oh, that's right, it only applies to the people they represent.)

Gnopps

This is not only the flights to BRU, many intra-European flights are routinely closed in punishment class as the departure day approaches. As fares in E and below does not allow upgrading to any class above E this means that if you wish to change your punishment class ticket you have to buy a totally new ticket to get on those flights, instead of upgrading your old one. For me as a travel agent that means that I usually book eco flex when the traveller asks for a flexible ticket, as the ticket otherwise might be useless for changes. And of course this equals extra money for SAS.

ramo

Probably not... but if they sold cheaper tickets, the bureaucrats would buy them instead of the current SEK 5k tickets, and SK would get less revenue. We have to remember that a flight with 20% load on SEK 5k tickets gives the same revenue as a flight with 100% load on SEK 1k tickets.

Doesn't make much sense - but neither does the current airline pricing model in general. I fail to see why business travelers should pay more for the same product than the leisure travelers in the first place - or why the airlines think that they need to play the current game of chicken with their prices.

GetAA81Back2ARN

I agree to the Saturday night rule. (Of course I also agree to the statement "get rid of the P-class.) The oneway concept seems good on paper (and in advertising) but will actually cause more expensive tickets for leisure travellers especielly those travelling on weekend travel ánd not making up their mind until rather late.

All P-class travel could be changed to roundtrip with a minimum stay (Sat or 2/3 nights) and if the pricing were to be correct it shouldn't really pay of to use back-to-back ticketing.

BA has the same thing going on. Some days prior to travel all classes but Y and B are emptied but only on the ARN-LHR segment (or v.v.). If you would look up ARN-LHR-AAA where AAA is a longhaul destination there is usually plenty of availability in many low classes up to departure.

Oh well, the wonders of yield managment.

view

I've seen this a some routes from Oslo as well that I've frequented. OSL-AMS Monday/Tuesday morning outbound and Tuesday/Wed inbound are usually very steeply priced in the days leading up to departure, yet the plane may be only half full (and wide open in the back) when I travel. Perhaps the theory is late bookers are not (that) price sensitive?