Don't underestimate the impact of Chapter 11 and protectionist regulations allowing the legacy airlines to retain market control in a way which wouldn't be allowed in any other environment. It's analogous to markets which retain state-run airlines, crowding out alternatives.

Depending on where you are staying in Washington, there is a BWI-CHS flight on Southwest. I got a $39 promo fare on that once but it was a rarity and you'll have the cost and time of getting to BWI.

$118 is probably about as good as you're going to get and I'd just book that. FWIW, it would not strike me as expensive at all.

$118 is expensive? :rolleyes:

Seems people in US are not quite aware how cheap airfares on LCC could be. As a proof - I had round trip flight from Johor, Malaysia to Saigon (HCMC) which no checked luggage. I paid equivalent of of USD $50 for it.

People are aware, it's just not relevant to the WAS-CHS market and the OP wondering if their WAS-CHS ticket price is a good deal or not.

That was about as low as it would routinely get to fly DCA-LGA/LGA-DCA (roundtrip either direction) even in the 1990s unless using the government negotiated fare or some negotiated fare for some very large private sector employers. And flights between those areas then had the benefit of having train and bus competition and plenty of competition given the BWI/DCA/IAD-EWR/ISP/JFK/LGA flight options at the time.

I'd say $118 is relatively cheap for a domestic roundtrip flight.

I wouldn't buy just yet, but I'd check two options on a regular basis.

One is Jetblue DCA-CHS. I've seen weekday fares as low as $59 for that non-stop. Sundays, especially in the summer, will be more expensive.

The other is Southwest BWI-CHS. Same as Jetblue, but from a different airport, and no charge for your checked luggage.

$118 is what I would expect to pay, especially this far out. Charleston is a great tourist destination, and Sunday flights in August don't seem to be the kind of flights likely to have deep discounted fares.

So keep checking for a while, to see if anything develops, but don't wait too long before pulling the trigger.

What does your flight from Malaysia to Saigon have to do with the US domestic market?

The OP got his answer very early on. The thread has now developed (as threads do) and the discussion has moved on to also compare prices elsewhere.

No need to be sensitive if it's pointed out how much passengers in the USA are being dumped on by their airlines in comparison to many other places.

Not too many LCCs/ULCCs for various reasons including consumer preference?

I imagine labour costs have something to do with it too (haven't seen comparative breakdowns of cost per ASM/ASK).

The closest one gets to those airfares is Spirit Airlines but I think most would rather drive.

That is a good number, you will spend more than the $118 in man hours trying to save a few bucks

I disagree that it's super expensive compared to the rest of the world.

I've lived in NZ and Australia, and to test your theory I tried a mainline QF search for AU and NZ search for, uh, NZ (as OP used AA not WN or similar, I excluded LCCs like JQ).

For a one way flight between BNE and SYD (467mi according to Great Circle) during a Sunday in Summer (February here) it was $125 AUD to $245 AUD one way sale fare depending on time of day. QF was also happy to sell me JQ tickets for $114 AUD to $130 AUD.

For a one way flight in NZ between AKL and CHC (463mi) on the same day, $109 NZD to $429 NZD depending on time of day (I used the lowest fare including a checked bag).

Not really. The European LCCs have very low fares on all routes if you book early enough. My regular MAN-EIN can be had for £9.99 sometimes. I tried to book another flight recently, and it was £200+.

The fact that topic started with - very affordable air travel is available at both developed world (Europe) and developing world as well. Yet for whatever reason, this has not arrived to US.

Just 20 min ago I booked one way flight KUL-SIN for appx US $21.

That is regular fare, if it would be sale, I could get the same ticket for less than $10 - that 35MYR fare is dropped to 1MYR.


We already had topic about cheap airfares here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...ue-ticket.html

Doesn't Australia have a dearth of mainline carriers as well, just like the US?