flyerfmaz

Great idea! Unfortunately, most of the contracts I work through don't permit direct charges for travel time -- I do of course get paid something for the time, but it's up to me to work the charges into my overall billing somewhere else (e.g. "documentation reviews"). To cover myself ethically, I always bring some client documents and read them along the way. Anyway, I can't use any savings from "travel time" to convince a client that a higher priced ticket is more advantageous to them. And the flights all leave around the same times in the morning.

flyerfmaz

Thanks to all for the replies -- this has been helpful and educational.

Kacee

Right. It's not at all uncommon to see a massive nonstop premium on UA for IAH flights.

Whether that's a sound strategy can be debated.

rob_flies_ua

Just wondering, how is this possible? TUS-IAH nonstop is ~2.5 hours, TUS-DFW-IAH is looking like minimum 4.5 hours.

flyerfmaz

Depends on if you're more concerned about departure or arrival times. One United direct flight departs 6:35am and arrives 11:03am. Optionally, American departs 5:11am and arrives 11:54am. So, if you want to arrive around the same time you definitely do have an earlier departure. American does have a flight departing Tucson at 6:58am (a few minutes later than the United), with an arrival time of 1:46pm at IAH. I booked the latter because I'm more sensitive to departure times than arrival times (my wife is going to run me to the airport). There's really no point getting in before noon, anyway -- my hotel room probably wouldn't be ready.

xliioper

There are $362 roundtrip L fares on the TUS-IAH non-stop, but they have 14-day advance purchase and minimum stay requirements. You are meeting the advance purchase part, but not the minimum stay part. Simply return on Saturday 8/4 instead of 8/3, and you will qualify. It's really got nothing to do with demand or flight fullness -- it's all in the fare rules in this case. Even if there is fare bucket availability in the lower fare classes on the flights (and there usually is), if you don't meet all the fare requirements, you will not be able to book the lower cost fares for those classes. Here are the stay requirements for the L fares --

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

The stay requirements on the cheaper fares are basically tailored around typical consultant work schedules (so that they don't meet them). And if you don't meet it, you get stuck with a $1042 M fare. This is typical of legacy pricing where there are no LCC non-stop competitors (who price all fares as one-ways and do not have minimum stay roundtrip fares -- although they do typically have cheaper fares for Tue/Wed/Sat travel). They are less prevalent these days with the rise of the LCC's than back in the old days, but they are still around as you can see.

While IAH-TUS is on the extreme end, there are a few other markets where fares are $900+ if you don't meet the min stay. Using Google Flights, I see IAH-SAV/CLE/COS/DSM/GRR/SDF/CMH/ORF around $900 or more for example. IAH-CLE is the worst at $1211 roundtrip.

LondonElite

You've been given some good answers on why direct flights between cities are often more expensive (see hidden city ticketing) so I won't dwell on that.

I'm more curious about the above statement. Are you suggesting that, not only will you not be reimbursed, but you'll have to pay a penalty to your clients?

writerguyfl

I know I'm being highly pedantic, but it's a pet peeve of mine. It probably doesn't matter the majority of the time, but a "direct" flight is not the same as a "nonstop" flight.

Nonstop Flight: Single flight number. Example: AAA to BBB
Direct Flight: Single flight number with one (or more) stops. Can also involve change of equipment. Example: AAA to CCC to BBB

jsloan

Not quite: A direct flight is actually a single flight number with zero or more stops. All nonstop flights are direct flights, but not all direct flights are nonstop.

WineCountryUA

The FT Glossary uses
Note the "if" which would also include non-stops.

flyerfmaz

As an independent consultant, I have to carefully judge what each client is or is not willing to pay for air travel to their locations. Based on the contract and factors I know about the client in Houston, they would strongly push back on a $900+ fare from Tucson. They would have looked the fare up, compared it to American, and given me the third degree. There's always some wiggle room (a hundred dollars here or there), but I would have been eaten alive if I'd booked United at that rate. $900 R/T would have been absurd in their view. My view is irrelevant, but I happen to personally believe it's ridiculous.

xliioper

Nobody really is disagreeing that the pricing is rather obscene. It's just us old-timers have seen it for decades and it was actually far more commonplace 10 or 20 years ago. The concept is not really that "bizarre". They are just taking advantage of the captive hub business flyers based in IAH who are willing to pay a heavy premium (mostly because someone else is paying) for the non-stop convenience of UA and to earn their UA miles and who do not wish to stay over a Friday or Saturday night. Many of us just got used to them and those who were price-sensitive developed strategies like hidden-city ticketing or staying a Friday or Saturday night (which opens up the much cheaper leisure fares). In this case, simply staying until Saturday reduces the fare to a much more reasonable $362 roundtrip L fare.

TerryK

Precisely. ^ Nothing bizarre at all. In fact, that's pretty normal pricing strategy for nonstop flights to/from major hubs for many legacy airlines.

Bonehead

If you Google "direct flight definition", nearly all the results (including Wikipedia, FWIW), define a direct flight as one that has at least one stop but the same flight number.

I would submit that for clarity we should use "nonstop" when we mean nonstop.

BThumme

Yep. It's not about the money, it's about following the rules. I have learned this the hard way two times at different companies (at my last job, there were premium economy flights cheaper then economy, but PE wasn't allowed, so couldn't be booked). Which is why, should I ever be fortunate to find myself having a work trip to Singapore, I will conveniently be in Newark the day before ;-).

Don't want to turn this into a work travel thread, but just know that companies have rules to follow, and if they need to go IAH-TUS or v/v, they will pay that fare.