RobOnLI

I have to go to Germany for work in a couple of weeks. It just came up. I'm looking at prices and find a few things very strange:

1. The price gouging is out of control. Business class r/t is $16,600 for WAS-FRA. Pre-Covid when planes were actually full the price was less than $6K r/t. (note: flights I'm looking at are wide-open and off days for travel).
2. If I book these as two one-way flights then it's $6,100 on the outbound and $2,400 for the return. That's $8,500 so basically 50% off just for booking separate flights. Exact same flights/dates. I'm not aware of any weird Covid requirements in Germany for one-way vs return tickets. I must be missing something here???
3. The real kicker is the below screenshot. What's wrong with this picture? Note: pic below is for FRA-WAS one way.



-RM
PS - search failed me again. There's probably a thread for "crazy airfares".

Jaimito Cartero

That full Y and premium economy pricing is pretty crazy. Have you checked other carriers?

RobOnLI

That's the one way price from Germany which is still way less than half the round trip. However, that's not even what's "wrong" with the photo above. Check it again.

Just checked Delta - they are showing $8,300 in business r/t and the outbound only has 2 seats open. So United is charging double the price for wide open cabins? Wonder why they're wide open.

-RM

HNLbasedFlyer

I don't know your exact dates - but 10/10 to 10/17 I get $7,986 rt for most of the flights.

Maybe you are bumping up against Oktoberfest pricing?

fumje

Clever — no Oktoberfest this year, but they still did the Oktoberfest pricing then?

sannmann

The United/Lufthansa JV holds a monopoly on nonstop WAS-FRA flights. Fly out of DCA or add a connection somewhere for a lower fare.

nyr2299

I paid $12K for a trip to Germany return from LHR a few weeks ago. The plane was full both ways in biz class. They have cut their EU travel by between 60-80%, which is more than business class demand has fallen off... just supply / demand at work. If anyone knows how to adjust pricing quickly in response to increased demand, its airlines.

sfozrhfco

You can take a train to EWR and get a flight connecting back through IAD for $2,946 RT

Jaimito Cartero

You paid 12k for a return from LHR-Germany? Now that sounds wrong.

nomad420

For some there still is definite a Oktoberfest, just not the massive public ones you see on the news. And I have made the mistake of traveling there at this time as well and probably paid the most obscene price for a biz class I have ever seen. Not the $12K as others posted but I want to say it was around $9K. I was told the same thing, "It's Oktoberfest what do you expect". In my case it wasn't even Oktoberfest but the lead in week. I am told the trailing weeks are just as bad. No surprise to me see this kind of pricing.

jsloan

There's nothing wrong with that picture. PE is likely being sold as Y plus an up-fare, but J is not -- it's a separate fare table on its own. A J price less than PE is perfectly normal, if probably subpar from a Revenue Management perspective.

This used to be common domestically also, until they invented differential pricing.

RobOnLI

Whenever I search for flights out of WAS I search "WAS" (IAD/DCA/BWI). All three airports are in my search. The cheapest is the non-stop out of IAD.

I searched NYC pricing as an origin. They have one flight at $12.1K with a connection through BCN. Two flights with connections through MXP for $14.5K. Their non-stop pricing is $16.5K. So basically the same as WAS. What's weird is the same connections out of WAS (BCN/MXP) aren't cheaper, if they appear at all.

-RM

mduell

I read it as an open jaw, US-DE LHR-US.

VRFast

Not sure what dates you’re looking at. I looked at the same ones as HNLbasedFlyer, 10/10-10/17, EWR-FRA R/T nonstop, Polaris for $7,185 smackaroos.

xliioper

It sounds like OP did not actually try pricing a roundtrip and only tried one-way's. As with most TATL routes, there are different fares for roundtrip bookings (as long as you meet the min-stay requirements -- typically a Saturday night or 7 days) than one-way bookings. Below is roundtrip pricing on UA non-stops with a 7-day stay which qualifies for the roundtrip fares. There are cheaper roundtrip fares with longer advance purchase requirements as can be seen below. There are also discounted fares around Thanksgiving due to limited business travel demand from US to EU around then. The cheapest roundtrip fares on this route are $3836 roundtrip, but require a lengthy 90-day advance purchase (so you have to book into January and beyond at this point to qualify for them). The pricing that OP is seeing is not so much due to do with "gouging" or demand and has everything to do with booking too close in and not booking as a roundtrip to qualify for roundtrip fares. Also, fare filings on ex-EU bookings are independent from ex-US (unlike domestic US flights were the fare filings are the same in both directions). The cheaper fares ex-EU have to do with different competitive environment and different demand than ex-US. Basically, the US companies that are buying those close-in ex-US business class fares and willing to spend much more than their EU counterparts.