USA flights expensive?
 

I'm looking at flying from Washington to Charleston, SC next Summer (early August) and the cheapest flight from looking so far seems to be $118, plus $25 for checked baggage - flying with American Airlines on a Sunday.

As someone used to the European Low Cost Carriers this seems really expensive to me; are the prices going to come down any more or is this likely to be the best it will get? I saw JetBlue.com aren't on sale yet, but looking at a random Sunday in June when they are on sale it still looks very expensive. Is this down to travelling in a high season, lack of competition, or similar?

This is not expensive, not at all.

Bar Spirit or Frontier (neither of whom serve CHS currently, but F9 are due to start in February but not from Washington) you don't have airlines selling fares for a few dollars as it the case with Ryanair et.al.

Will it come down? Who knows, if it does it might only be by a few dollars but the fully flexible walk up fares that it could well go to are several multiples of that $118 figure.

Seems like a fantastic deal to me. I don't know if you can even drive the 500+ miles for that cheap.

I’m a bit stunned that someone would think $118 is an expensive fare. That is dirt cheap.

I can however understand that someone used to dirt cheap fares of European LCC might get the impression of only having to pay ~50$ for a return flight of that distance. But good look finding those fares on domestic routes in the US...

You have some time to monitor fares if you'd like, but that seems like a really good price particularly as it's still peak summer vacation season.

Just be careful that you don't book a Basic Economy fare that the Big 3 are pushing now, as those have restrictions on baggage, advance seating, and other things that may or may not make it worth the small savings from a regular economy fare, depending on your needs. However this should be clearly called out on the website before you finalize a booking.

We don't generally have the super low fares of European LCCs...nor do we have cheap, widespread, and efficient rail service. OTOH if you're coming from the UK or EU at least the exchange rate is in your favor, for what it's worth!:)

typically, $118 for a ~500-mile flight is indeed a good deal, and as others have indicated it’s unlikely to come down significantly in the next six to eight months ... also, as others have indicated, OP should make certain that this isn’t the dreaded “Basic Economy” fare to which every imaginable amenity has to be added

for the sake of comparison, both Columbia SC and Savannah GA are within about an hour’s drive of Charleston, and I’d guess would have similar pricing at this point in time ... I suspect OP might find $89-$99 fares to ATL, but I wouldn’t subject myself to Hartsfield and 3+ hours (?) on I-20 for that savings

Please return to the reality of the U.S. This is not Europe.

Beside the market is very much different.

That's a great price!

It’s not bad for this route. CHS is an expensive city for me to get flights to from further up North and from the Midwest, and it’s such that I save money by buying miles for redeeming for flights to/from CHS.

Plus the high cost of transit to faraway obscure airports, plus service fee, plus baggage charges, plus check-in fee, plus boarding pass print fee, plus security fee, plus inflight F&B fee... Europe is different.

You should try flying domestically in Canada......heh.

US airfares, even after our 22% forex cost, are a good deal.

+1. Anyone who thinks $118 is expensive for a flight is in for a shock when booking a domestic flight in Canada.

Those LCC fares are also *typically* offered only on the ultra-mass-market tourist routes. Like anything from UK to any Spanish island.

Which is not dissimilar to the cheap fares to Las Vegas from the SF Bay Area.

Good look getting LCC to carry you from Bucharest to Frankfurt for $118.

Bucharest to Frankfurt you get for $90, if you fly to Dortmund its $30.

US and Canada are super expensive compared to the rest of the world. Suppose management has bigger pockets.