Trying to book a airline ticket, please explain

[Jims5543]

I am trying to get from West Palm Beach to Asheville.

US Air:
If I buy round trip tickets it costs $471.

If I buy one way it costs $424 for the same flight up but no return trip.

If I am willing to fly 10,000 miles over 3 days and make 5 plane changes I can fly one way for $218.

Delta:

round trip - $566
1 -Way - $695

How does this make any sense?

How can I use 10X more fuel, eat 5X more snacks, tie up 5X more personnel and it be the cheapest flight?

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

I am trying to get from West Palm Beach to Asheville.

If I buy round trip tickets it costs $418.

If I buy one way it costs $695 for the same flight up but no return trip.

If I am willing to fly 10,000 miles over 3 days and make 5 plane changes I can fly one way for $218.

How does this make any sense?

How can I use 10X more fuel, eat 5X more snacks, tie up 5X more personnel and it be the cheapest flight?

It gets worse, if you buy the round trip and don't use the retun leg they can penalize you with the "throwaway ticket" policy.

[p911dad]

The plane is going anyway, and as long as there are empty seats for you to buy, the cost to the airline can only go down if more seats are sold.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Scott R

... the "throwaway ticket" policy.

What is that?

[BlueSideUp]

Jim at least part of the reason for all of the connections is contract carriers. Delta, like a lot of major airlines, contract a lot of domestic flying out to contract carriers. If you are riding on a Delta Connection jet you could actually be riding on Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Freedom Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines, Comair, Shuttle America, or Mesa Airlines. Each one provides a different level of service and many of them have contracts where Delta buys each and every seat on the airplane. They are willing to sell a ticket to you with five connections because they have already purchased the seat on each aircraft whether you ride in it or not.

I had a passenger once who's husband bought her an airline ticket for an anniversary vacation in Pensacola, FL. He logically went to Expedia and booked the ticket from Boise, ID to Pensacola without looking at the connections. This poor lady went from Boise to Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City to Dallas to Pensacola! I'm sure his anniversary started out with a loud discussion about Expedia and cheap airline tickets.

It's a case of you get what you pay for.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Noah930

What is that?

I learned about this policy the hard way, basically I fly every week for work, and sometimes I get stuck, or have to extend my stay. Long story short, I would cancel a ticket and buy a round trip home and never use the return leg. After the third or so time I did this I got a bill for the difference of the one way vs. the round trip. Turns out they track this sort of thing to some extent, and they (united) was able to show me in the fine print where they state this.

I caved, rather than do anything to jeopardize my Premier status, I just paid them. That's what I get for not reading the fine print.

[Jims5543]

I just booked from West Palm to Charlotte NC instead of Asheville and the one way ticket was $211 with taxes. I needed 2 tickets so I just got 2 tickets for the price of one. I just rented a $40 economy car to get me to my house in NC, we will run it back to Asheville airport and return it the next morning (45 minute drive), then we are off to the Dragon.

I have the vacation house for sale and will be happy not to have to deal with Airlines anymore than once a year.

I still do not understand how one way is more money than round trip. It makes no sense other than they think they have you by the short hairs and can command the higher price. In this case Delta lost a customer and US air lost out too. I purchased cheaper $200 tickets to Charlotte instead of the $500 to Asheville.

[Rot 911]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

I have the vacation house for sale and will be happy not to have to deal with Airlines anymore than once a year.

What?????????????? How come you are selling. That place is so cool!

[Jims5543]

Business is really slow in Florida, and will be for quite a while. Its a good time right now and after the sale I will be mortgage free, debt free, and have about 50K extra in the bank.

We might buy a lot further up the hill from the house and build on it in a few years. Right now we are spread too thin and it would be nice to be debt free again.

It was not an easy decision, the pros for selling outweighed the cons with the only reason for hanging on being selfish ones.

We stand to make 70K off it so we will take 20K and buy a nice boat to use here in Florida.

[Rot 911]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

Business is really slow in Florida, and will be for quite a while. Its a good time right now and after the sale I will be mortgage free, debt free, and have about 50K extra in the bank.

We might buy a lot further up the hill from the house and build on it in a few years. Right now we are spread too thin and it would be nice to be debt free again.

It was not an easy decision, the pros for selling outweighed the cons with the only reason for hanging on being selfish ones.

We stand to make 70K off it so we will take 20K and buy a nice boat to use here in Florida.

Can't disagree with your logic. My wife and I have talked about getting a vacation home, but it seems we barely have enough time to keep up with the house we have much less maintenance on a 2nd house.

[Dantilla]

I think the airlines set their prices by using a Magic 8 ball. Or a ouija board. Or throwing dice. Or drawing cards.

Or maybe an unknown combination of all of the above.

[the]

Originally Posted by BlueSideUp

I had a passenger once who's husband bought her an airline ticket for an anniversary vacation in Pensacola, FL. He logically went to Expedia and booked the ticket from Boise, ID to Pensacola without looking at the connections. This poor lady went from Boise to Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City to Dallas to Pensacola! I'm sure his anniversary started out with a loud discussion about Expedia and cheap airline tickets.

It's a case of you get what you pay for.

Yeah, you have to be careful with Expedia. It apparently searches for prices, but the choices it spits out can be "raw" or un-doable in real life.

Yours is one example. But I was almost hit by a worse one. I had a round trip from the mainland US to Hawaii, booked on Expedia. Final destination was Maui, but in and out, it went through Honolulu.

I noticed that on the connections at Honolulu, there was only around 40 minutes between our flight arriving and the connection leaving. I assumed that was enough time for us and our luggage to transfer to the new plane, and that if it was not enough time, Expedia would not offer it as an option.

WRONG! The way the flights were laid out at the airport, they said they could not guarantee that our luggage would make the connection! They said they would need at least 1.5 hours to guarantee it.

On our inbound trip, the luggage didn't make it on our plane from Honolulu to Maui. Which turned out ok, because it did make the next flight, which was less than an hour later. So by the time we got our rental car, etc., it was there.

Coming home, we had the same problem, only 40 minutes for our luggage to switch plans at Honolulu. They said it probably wouldn't make it. Which would be a disaster on this part of the trip, since the next flight wasn't until the next day, and getting back to the airport to get the luggage the next day would have been a logistical nightmare.

Fortunately the luggage miraculously made the connection.

The people at the airport in Hawaii said it happens all the time with Expedia, bums people out.

[Laneco]

Hey Scott - I fly United most of the time. Very common for me to have to change my return date. If you call United you can change it pretty easily. Don't use the general number, use the number on the back of your premier card. Worst case scenario so far it has cost me $100. Most of the time it is a wash. The cost depends on the price difference between what you had and aren't useing and what you need but haven't yet gotten... They may also let you "hold" the unused return trip for another time. Ask about it, I've never done that.

Do the whims of my work schedule, I get stuck doing the return trip switch-a-roo probably 5 or 6 times per year. Maybe this tactic will save you a headache.

angela

[Rick Lee]

I booked a flight to Vegas from Dulles, connecting in Los Angeles. I wanted to get off in LA and spend a few days there, since my company would only pay to get to Vegas and back. So I figured I go a few days early and just get off the plane in LA and then pay my way back to Vegas. When I asked to have my luggage coded for LAX, the lady at the counter said that wasn't allowed because my ticket was for Vegas. I explained that I had changed my mind since booking that ticket and wanted to get off in LA. She said too bad, but my bags would not be getting off with me. I asked why and she replied it was a security issue. I said the security issue is usually that passengers and bags have to be on the same flight and I'm getting off in LA, so my bags should too. She said too bad. I told her they couldn't stop me from getting off in LA. She said it would cost another $100 for them to tag my bags for LA. I was outraged. If this was a security issue, why was I able to buy my way out of it for $100? I told her I would happily pay more than $100 to never fly UAL again. I paid the $100, wrote a letter and got a $100 travel voucher from UAL.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Laneco

Hey Scott - I fly United most of the time. Very common for me to have to change my return date. If you call United you can change it pretty easily. Don't use the general number, use the number on the back of your premier card. Worst case scenario so far it has cost me $100. Most of the time it is a wash. The cost depends on the price difference between what you had and aren't useing and what you need but haven't yet gotten... They may also let you "hold" the unused return trip for another time. Ask about it, I've never done that.

Do the whims of my work schedule, I get stuck doing the return trip switch-a-roo probably 5 or 6 times per year. Maybe this tactic will save you a headache.

angela

Sometimes I get very helpful people, sometimes I get the $100 charge, and sometimes I get stuck. Other times I just decide to stay the weekend and party if it's a nice place. And on occasion I fly the wife out as well, I guess I don't really expect them to accommodate me and my whimsical lifestyle, I just pay up and have a good time.

[Icemaster]

....house is for sale...?

We're starting to look in that area. You got a link you can PM me?