jp12687

I have noticed in the last few months fares at UA have gotten out of control.

I often fly EWR-SNA and its near impossible to not find a round trip fare these days that doesn't cost almost $1500 it seems.

I used to be able to book 7-8 days out for about $950-1000.

has anyone else noticed this the fare prices going up 30-50% recently?

sgw2124

I have noticed the same on the HKG-ORD route.
Used to book round trip - EWR-DEL-HKG- ORD for approx. 5800 in Business on the UA sectors (booked either CX or SQ for the DEL- HKG segment on a separate PNR).

Now that same routing on UA is pricing out over 10,000 - same 8 week advance booking. When I broke it down by segment- the HKG-ORD portion was over 6,000 alone. Needless to say- my next 2 trips on that routing are now on CX, for 6800 total, including the DEL- HKG segment.

I won't be making 1K this year- for the first time in 8 years.

jp12687

yea-- i also fly EWR-HKG and used to be able to get business class on the non-stop for about $5500-5800 with advance booking-- i can't find anything under $6800-7500 now.

their rates combined with the "meh" service really makes them un-competitive.

PushingTin

I've seen some fares higher and some lower. Maybe with them targeting low cost airlines like B9 and F9 out of DEN. FLL was cheap, full and impossible to upgrade on. Weird days.

villox

Meanwhile I got ORD-EWR roundtrip on a weekend for $120, something I haven't been able to do for years.

Often1

It doesn't help much to simply tell us the fare. What about the fare basis? That tells us whether your fare has increased.

If you used to pay $200 for a G fare and it now costs $1,000, the G fare has increased by $800.

If the best you can now find is B at $1,000, you are simply unable to find G fares because the economy is on screech and RM/IM is allocating fewer seats, as it should, to the lower fare buckets.

xliioper

There are $990 1-week advance purchase RT U fares on the non-stop, but they have a minimum stay requirement which presumably you are not meeting --

WHEN DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN IS SUN THEN TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN THE FIRST FRI AFTER DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN OR - WHEN DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN IS MON THROUGH FRI THEN TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SAT AFTER DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN OR - WHEN DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN IS SAT THEN TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SUN AFTER DEPARTURE FROM FARE ORIGIN.

So you are getting bumped to a $1490 M fare

I'll take a wild guess and assume that, like many, many business flyers, you are booking Su-Th or M-F trips. UA knows this which is why they put in the min stay rules in the lower fare classes. Book a Su-F or M-Sa trip instead, and you will see the price magically drop.

Alternatively, book one of the many broken fare connecting options that will get you under $1000.

jp12687

that is correct-- my point is previously (6ish months ago) the same trip length was not forced into M fares.

jsloan

This is fairly new behavior, though. (Well, it's very old behavior that has seen a recent resurgence). For years, UA published almost all of its domestic fares on a one-way basis (no minimum-stay requirements), including the deeply-discounted fares. I've started to notice minimum stay requirements creeping back into some of their fares over the past month or so.

Darlox

I try not to put too much thought into airfares, because I'm just going to assume that Rev Mgmt either knows what they're doing, or will shortly be fired... When UA is significantly more expensive than DL on the same route, I fly DL -- and vice-versa.

That said, in line with the OP and a few replies, I _have_ noticed that flights to Europe now through late Spring seem to be consistently higher than the competition for the cities I normally fly out of. What appears to be happening is that everyone else is having fare sales that UA isn't matching. The fares are about the same overall, but I can get low-fare buckets on DL or AA, and only W or above on UA.

Flying to DXB in about a month and bought my ticket from AC. For the exact same *A flights ex-CLE, UA was not offering the OAL flight numbers, and the UA codeshare flight numbers were consistently ~$800-$1k more expensive (in Z) than buying from AC or LX directly. *shrug*

xliioper

Disagree. The legacies have only done that when there is competition with WN (because that is the WN pricing model). When there is limited WN competition (particularly where the legacy has non-stops and WN does not, or WN does not serve the market at all), the cheaper fare classes on the legacies have almost always had RT and min stay requirements. You live in a WN stronghold city, so your observations are going to be highly biased. EWR has many markets where UA has a monopoly on non-stop service. I'd add that WN recently dropped a number of SNA flights which made getting from the NYC area to SNA considerably less convenient. In particular, the loss of SNA-STL eliminated a number of connection options from EWR and LGA. UA would have most likely noticed this fact which increased their pricing power.

BBSHOPSINGER

I've found some surprisingly high fares lately in looking for tickets about a month out. When looking at other airlines, however, the fares are at least as high. I find in most cases United beats WN out of Denver on fares, but that very much depends on the timing of the purchase. I looked for round-trip to DSM next month (specific dates), and the RT was around $1300. I looked on WN and got the same fare there. Fortunately, they had saver seats available, and I was able to book using miles.

xliioper

Exact same issue as OP. No non-stop WN competition, just a daily F9 flight, so UA has pricing power. UA has lower fares on this route (from $400 RT), you just need to meet the minimum stay requirements or include a Saturday night stay. The stay requirements in the fare rules serve as market segmentation between the leisure flyer who is willing to do a Saturday night stay and the business flyer who wants to travel mid-week and be home for the weekends.

mduell

I'm seeing cheaper fares than usual. $1400 became $1200, $230 became $180, etc.

mauiUAflyer

Or perhaps not...

Article from the Atlanta Constitution:
Air fares fall to 7-year low, feds report
Increased competition from low-cost carriers, low fuel costs cited.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution 01/21/2017
Author: Kelly Yamanouchi

http://airport.blog.ajc.com/2017/01/...el-since-2010/