GNRMatt

Anyone notice that this morning that the prices skyrocketed? I checked a few different flights, and they all went up about $400-$600. I think someone made a mistake on US Airways' end.

hoskm01

any specific examples? Im about to book a couple.

GNRMatt

The 3 that I noticed were...

PHL-MCO (From about $250 up to $646)
PHL-MUC (From about $1000 up to $1800)
PHL-MSY (From about $270 up to $820)


At that point I just stopped searching

Often1

Are you comparing apples to oranges? You don't provide the fare bases or dates of travel for the routes of travel. If fare basis XXX increases from $100 to $1000, you have a good question. But, if you were looking at XXX and now YYY, the difference may always have been there, but XXX has been sold and the cheapest fare is now at YYY.

This also occurs with fares that have advance purchase requirements. If you were looking 30 days out and it's now 29 days, you can't buy the 30-day fare anymore (for the date of travel).

Why don't you post the full details and perhaps we can help you.

jdw7319

Price was about $319 last week, now $850 !! Something has to be wrong, or else they have finally hit the price point where I will find something else to do locally.

emraldsun

I was looking at a PHL - MSY flight for a conference in Nov. I was waiting for approval so I hadn't book yet. On Thursday the RT was about $350. Now it is over $800 for the same flight on the same day.

GNRMatt

Nope...Looking at the exact same date months out. It just seems that prices have skyrocketed. One thing I notice when I go to USAirways site is all of the Non-Refundable tix for these flights are "Sold Out" even though the seating chart shows plenty of availability. For example, this is for ALL flights from Philly to Orlando in December, January and February. That makes no sense.

bd3500

I noticed same exact thing. Last week non-refundable coach from RSW to DCA via either CLT or PHL were $99 to $125 for this week and next (one way). Now they are all sold out and $490 each.

Looks like I'll be taking airtran home.

sbbutler93

Now this is pure conjecture, but I have always noticed fare classes jumping up on Sat and Sun from earlier in the week. Then for some reason they almost always settle back down (same fare class, again) by Tues or Wed. Odd things, these fares are.

lisah101

Just last week I booked PHX-MLB (9/30/11) for $215, then MCO-PHX (10/18/11) for $103.

Now those flights are $459 and $319 respectively. I am so glad I booked them earlier this week. That price increase is crazy!!

Biggie Fries

What everybody else said ... Have been monitoring PHL-DTW for October ; not totally sure of my schedule, so surveying several combinations -- least of it is from the $300s to nearly $500 ; but some dates now $800+, and this over two months out. Sometimes I see this as a shock when I log on too early East Coast time and Tempe is still re-filling the grid, but this is a trend, persistent, and increasingly aggravated (and aggravating).

Btw, the planes in question remain all but empty.

grinch26

This is correct.

A flight I was closely monitoring went from $89 on Friday morning to $211 on Friday night. A roundtrip TATL itinerary went from $1,125 Friday morning to $1,950 Friday night. This pattern has repeated itself this summer on a number of routes I have monitored.

Often1

As I noted in my earlier post, you are now definitely comparing apples and oranges. "Non-Refundable" seats are deeply discounted and capacity controlled. This means that US (and every other carrier still in business) limits the number of cheap seats it will sell on a flight. Once those seats are sold, the fare basis (non-refundable) is sold out and the next most expensive fare bucket becomes the cheapest.

Carriers, including US, use sophisticated software to predict sales based on date, flight, etc. What you are seeing is the software predicting that US will sell the refundable (Y/B) fares. If, as it gets closer to the date of travel, US can't sell the seats at Y/B, it will open up the deep discounts again.

For the past few years, US and other carriers simply kept discounting until they could sell the seats. Now, the carriers have smartened up. They will cut capacity (cancel flights, use smaller aircraft) until they can fill what they have with fares where they can make money.

Unfortunately from your standpoint, this means that US goes bankrupt if it sells too many seats for $250 and stays in business when the seat is sold for $750.

Going forward, pax will need to be much quicker about booking. Great fares won't last and the alternatives won't be just a little bit more.

Often1

The days when you could monitor fares are over. When you see the good fare, you may need to grab it on the spot or lose it.

split8s

Apples-to-Apples
I bought a ticket this past Thursday for DCA-LAS on Labor Day weekend - $465
Now two days later just checked exact same flights - $762
Looked as seat maps quickly, and there are still similar number of open seats showing. All flights on the same dates are sharply higher in price.