W fare class increases?
 

Anyone noticed their usual routes in W class has gone up this year?
I fly to Brazil a few times a year and this market seems to have gone up in every fare class by alot. Use to be a perk to upgrade with the system wide but to buy up to w class to get the upgrade has gone up over 300 this year alone. Round trip K class run about 900 and w class around 1700. I'm not sure if the extra 800 is worth it anymore or being 1k for that matter. To upgrade with miles and cash is 50k and 1000 so the gap has gotten more narrow and is a toss up on just being platinum status and or flying other airlines.

I've found that my airfare in general has gone up this year, significantly in some cases. I'm seeing fares to some markets that are 2x to 3x what I paid as recently as a year or two ago. Economy is getting better.

Yeah the W to cheapest fare spread has had some nasty increases on a lot of routes over the past year or two

Airline consolidation.

Fare rules are set by class and they can make them as high as they want. I was shocked over the summer when $500 RT cross country fares were pricing as N, but I guess that's the new reality.

Should make PQD earning easier I guess

Well the consolidation and increase pricing will get competition if the uber/lyft models ever "take off" in the airline industry. The FAA recently ban it if its profit making but it should become an antitrust issue with the big 3 now. Albeit international flight sharing is super complex.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...airpooler.html

Indeed; in many cases, the bargain-basement fares haven't gone up much or at all, but the spread to W has gone up significantly. I recall it being over $700 on WAS-BKK earlier this year r/t, for example--basically, a $700 surcharge for the chance to apply a GPU and play the lottery. This used to be about a $300 spread.

I'm really running out of reasons to not switch to DL.

The difference may depend on a number of factors, like time of year, day of week, what airports you are traveling between. I just purchased another IAD-VIX W fare for the Oct-Nov time frame ahd the difference was $450. That seems typical to me and I've been doing this trip every month for over 6 years.

Yes, XXX-LHR-XXX, RT jumped $450 with substantial advance purchase. 33% increase

Keep in mind they said they would be keep prices higher further out than they used to.

While it sucks, with airline consolidation this seems about right. Why charge less if you can get away with it?

Yes, like the WAS-NRT fares I want for next year; generally, S fares would be available for those dates of travel, but now, UA (with empty planes) is offering only V for this much advance notice.

Wow - I think this is the first time in at least 15 years that I am seeing lower prices from Houston than others are seeing from other cities. I am watching several routes for October, November, and December and prices now are lower than I have seen in several years.

Of course I also priced IAH-DTW for a couple weeks from now and the UA price was 3.5x the Spirit price, so the bargains aren't universal. (and the comfort of a CRJ-700 for 2.5-3 hours is roughly equivalent to flying Spirit.)

Looks like UA wants us all to fly Delta.