Why is it so EXPENSIVE to fly out if IAH?
 

As the title says... I have a couple of flexible dates coming up in Dec where I want to take a trip. I was playing around the fares going to SLC, DEN, DCA, SEA etc and all the fares are over 300.00 easy... But if I put in Austin which is about 150 miles the fares drop almost in half..

Am I looking at the wrong time or should I want? I remeber a couple of years ago I bought a ticket to DEN for 150.00 and 210.00 to seattle.

It goes with all airlines that fly out of IAH. If CO has a fare of 300.00 RT and why can't AA or AW or DL go lower?

it's a fortress hub for CO, where they are based and a stonghold they have defended.

It is much less expensive to fly out of Love Field where the low fare airlines fly out of.

Hee hee - so glad I live in Austin!

It's all about supply and demand - if the airline can get $200 more for flights out of IAH because those routes are more popular, that's what they're going to charge.

I used to live in TUL and found the same thing. I got a TUL-SJC fare for $300 (changing planes in DFW), but the DFW-SJC fare was $900.

Maybe this has changed, because other airlines now use DFW as a hub, but in the past, my travel agent explained that one of the reasons that happens is because the DFW-SJC leg was a non-stop, and AA doesn't have a lot of competition on non-stop flights out of DFW. Most other airlines have to have a change of planes to get from DFW to wherever.

On the other hand, TUL to the destination is going to involve a change of planes almost anywhere you go, on any airline you fly on. So AA has to have a competitive fare.

I'm not saying that's definitely why, and I know there are getting to be more and more flights out of Austin, but that's just an example of supply and demand driving prices.

No offense but I don't think paying $300 is expensive at all to fly to somewhere like Seattle or Washington DC. I'm flying to IAH shortly and my airfare was $284 RT economy. And I'm only a couple states away from you.

Being honest here, do you really expect to find a ticket IAH-SEA for only $199.

Cheers,
MIKE

Well, I'm finding it expensive to fly IN to IAH as well. Looking at flexible dates in October/November, but I can't seem to find anything from LAX that's less than $400 nonstop. I then tried fares to Austin, as my friends in Houston would be kind enough to hang out with us there for the weekend instead, and found that it's even more expensive to get there. Sheesh, I can fly to London for cheaper!

*Gasp* You could fly to London for cheaper!?! Wow. You guys down there are lucky (maybe even spoiled). CO routinely offers some remarkably low fares in your market.....I'm so envious.

I live in a mid-size market here in the South and rarely ever get those rock-bottom airfares you are be talking about. Though, to be honest, I did manage to swing a cheapo roundtrip flight to Paris (CDG) in November for only $433 roundtrip via Northwest Airlines (which typically offers the lowest fares here to many overseas destinations).


Cheers,
MIKE

I wished the fare was that low to Seattle but as other stated. it is cheaper to fly to london than is to denver. Wouldn't you agree that iah-den or iah-abq should be under 200.00?

I think you mean Hobby. Love's in Dallas.

Well, to be honest, yeah...I'd love to see that type of airfare for IAH-DEN or ABQ, but I wouldn't really complain if it were $300 either. I flew to DEN for $303 recently (great fare for folks in east TN).....though CO offered a slightly cheaper fare, I chose NW instead because NW puts most of their elite members in first class cabin, CO has yet to start doing that for elites of partner carriers.

By the way, just how cheap is it for folks in Houston to fly to London (go ahead, make me REALLY jealous now)? ;)

Cheers,
MIKE

I thought Southwest flies out of Love's Field? So much I know.... :o

Cheers,
MIKE

Southwest does fly out of Love, but it's in Dallas. They also fly into Hobby, which is the Love Field equivalent in Houston.

Sorry for the confusion Mike, but I was talking about fares from LAX-London being cheaper than LAX-Houston. I've got a bunch of carriers advertising $300 RT from LAX-London right now...

CO's fares out of IAH generally stink. You can find some real bargains on AA to Chicago (even a daily non-stop to MDW). If you keep looking for it all the time and have flexible travel plans, you can get CO fares to Denver on the cheap, as well as to Seattle. I've flown to Denver for $150, about a year ago. Flew up to Seattle twice this year, but passed up the CO $210 rate in favor of WN. Of course, it goes without saying that the availability of these fares is pretty awful. And if you don't want to fly CO out of IAH, assume that you're going to transfer in ATL or DFW. Ugh. I hate flying out of IAH! I avoid it whenever possible. The drive is bad enough, and with all the construction, it's even worse.

Gee, there's also MEM (NW) or ORD (UA)...not just DFW & ATL. I wouldn't assume that everyone thinks DL is the next best thing (I sure don't). :(

Construction at IAH. Ughhhh. I'm flying to IAH shortly and was not aware of construction woes. Thanks for the warning (though I already purchased my ticket so I'm kind of stuck).

Cheers,
MIKE

Wow....$300 from the west coast to Europe. Good grief. I haven't paid such a rock-bottom transatlanic fare like that since flying KL JFK-AMS for $278 years ago.

And then there's all of those specials by UA and Qantas to SYD from the west coast. Man, what am I doing living in the interior U.S.

Cheers,
MIKE

Thank you!