dafunk10

BNA is my home base, so it's been encouraging to see DL expand capacity at all their major hubs over the last few years.....however, I've even noticed that there's an ongoing far/capacity war going on since WN announced their 5 times daily service between their focus airport at BNA and operating base at ATL starting in August.

WN initially went to market with $19 one way fares, and is currently sitting around $70-$80. DL has responding by adding 757-200 aircraft on what is otherwise an MD-88 route, and a price point of $99 each way. And they've added that aircraft either bookending or at the same time as WN's departures to ATL (on 6 of DL's 11 daily flights).


For now, it looks like that is only during the fall months, as MD-88's are scheduled in Jan/Feb 2019. From my perspective, that route needs competition. I terminated a flight at CSG recently because it was $300 cheaper than the $750 RT fare between BNA-ATL (was traveling to Macon, and it only added ~20 minutes of drive time).

jk88usa

Don’t be shocked to see that one switch back to an M88 by the time the 757 is scheduled to start. For now, I have a feeling they are going to gauge how well it sells at the new price point and in seeing how they fair (and fare) against WN.

If the 757 is still scheduled within 45 days or so...then you can be much more confident it’ll actually operate. Still, nice to see DL has some competition in a price gouged market for a change...

gooselee

I wish they were fighting over this route last week. $1100 for an ATL-BNA RT.

I considered driving but long days/late nights would have made the 4.5 hr trip moderately unsafe.

3Cforme

Buy all of the Southwest trips you can use. No change fees - fare is usable in the name of the purchaser if cancelled before flight departure.

https://www.southwest.com/html/air/f...formation.html

xliioper

As OP noted, WN flights do not start until August. Until then, you can expect DL to continue to extract a premium on short notice trips that don't include a Saturday night stay. A roundtrip K fare that requires a Saturday night stay and with no advance purchase requirement is about half the price ($548) of the $1100 you paid for your no advance required one-way M fares. The cheapest one-way DL fares currently on this route are $189 T fares that have a 30-day advance purchase requirement (the matching BE fare is $29 cheaper). Once WN starts, DL has $99 one-way V fares with 21-day advance requirement (still $29 fare differential for BE).

james318

I remember when NW would run 75's through BNA from Detroit. After the merger it went to a steady supply of regional jets, including one particularly bad flight on an ERJ-145, where we threaded some severe storms to land in DTW and then sat on the taxiway as a major storm rolled over us, rocking the plane like a toy (luckily on the ground...) I was never more sure I was going to die than on that descent and subsequent sit on the taxiway.

gooselee

Huh? All you're doing is buying WN credit. If the new flights you want cost more, you still pay the fare difference.

Oh yeah, totally understand. Mine was purchased less than 24 hours before departure, so not really making any comparison other than maybe if it was already August and DL had some competition, I could have paid $800 instead of $1100.

This was more just me reading the thread and going "Hey! I just flew that route!"

bitterproffit

I did notice another nice part of the WN BNA ATL service: When looking at taking WN from BNA to Florida (MCO, TPA, JAX, FLL) there still are some non stops, but also quite a few choices through ATL in the fall instead of MDW. I would rather connect in ATL than MDW when flying to Florida (if I can't swing the non stops).

Pianoman109876

ATOBTTR

Pianoman109876

3Cforme

Perhaps one has sufficient quality of intellect to buy flights on likely travel dates. If so, one gets a cheap flight on Southwest. If not, one gets a Southwest credit - or a $200 change fee on Delta. This is not a difficult choice.

boss315

Good to see some at least lower fares! Having moved to Bna two years ago, I have been appalled at the highway robbery fare in and out...and my clients balk too!

dafunk10

oh, yeah....I'm expecting the likelihood they keep 757's on 6 of those flights (or even less) is very very slim

indufan

How do you define highway robbery. BNA has been historically one of the cheapest markets out there.