What's Up With Airline Travel Costs?

CurtEgerer · CurtEgerer's Garage

I just booked a non-stop roundtrip flight for next week from Detroit to LAX for $276. I made the same trip about a month ago for about the same price. It's just incredibly cheap to fly these days, yet gasoline & diesel fuel is way up!

onewhippedpuppy · 04-01-2008, 06:12 AM

Competition?

CurtEgerer · CurtEgerer's Garage

Well I guess that might be the obvious answer, i.e., supply-demand. Is demand that low for airline travel right now that there is a fare-war going on?

Mr_Wizard · 04-01-2008, 06:27 AM

I have to go to San Diego in a few weeks for a conference and I was able to get my gf a roundtrip ticket from Jacksonville, NC for less than 300 bucks.

TerryH · TerryH's Garage

Considering they aren't feeding us any more and are now charging for additional luggage, their profits are growing without major ticket price increases.

Aloha airlines cited fuel as one reason it had to quit.

lendaddy · 04-01-2008, 06:44 AM

Government regulation has kept prices low.

DaveE · 04-01-2008, 06:44 AM

It might depend on when their fuel contracts expire also.

DaveE · 04-01-2008, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lendaddy

Government regulation has kept prices low.

Like the way the gov't has carefully watched over inspection records, for example.

BRPORSCHE · 04-01-2008, 06:58 AM

I used to drive from Baton Rouge to Houston a lot. It cost me 45 dollars to fill up. So thats a tank there, a tank over the weekend, and then a tan back. 135 dollars + 7 hours total travel time. Now I found out that Continental does weekend specials. Book the flight by Friday night, fly out Saturday, and be back either Monday or Tuesday.

With taxes and airport parking it comes out to right under 130 dollars with 2 hours of travel time. Can I beat that driving? NOT A CHANCE!

Here is the link if anyone is curious about it. http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/booking/specials/default.aspx

Also, let me add that the plane ticket is round trip.

hardflex · 04-01-2008, 07:53 AM

add in travel time to/from the airport, 1 1/2 hours ahead of flight time to go through security, cost and time to get a rental car and return it, and it's not as good a deal as it seems.

MRM · 04-01-2008, 07:58 AM

You must have gotten a deal. Rates across the board are up. We've been looking for vacation air fare this summer and the prices are quite a bit higher than even months ago.

CurtEgerer · CurtEgerer's Garage

Maybe it's unique to Detroit and Northwest? I just picked a random week in May as a test - fly out on Monday, fly back on Friday, round trip, non-stop. Here's the result:

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

I paid $890 for RT San Diego to Philly on USAir one week in advance. American wanted $1300... I normally pay $350/400 for this trip.

on2wheels52 · on2wheels52's Garage

I thought $850 round trip to Munich (including getting from a small airport to Chicago) was a good deal, was was expecting twice that.
Jim

450knotOffice · 450knotOffice's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by TerryH

Considering they aren't feeding us any more and are now charging for additional luggage, their profits are growing without major ticket price increases.

Aloha airlines cited fuel as one reason it had to quit.

Profits? Growing? No. The airlines are losing money hand over fist due to the very high fuel costs and the inability of the airlines to charge enough (across the board) for the seats. The flying public has NEVER had fares as low as they are now (adjusted for inflation). If this continues for much longer, you will begin to see the collapse of the airline industry in this country. These low fares coupled with the very high costs can not go on forever.

Long term, I fear for my job.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Agree with all that's been said. The prices simply HAVE TO go up soon otherwise there's going to be a system-wide collapse.

As much as I miss flying, I'm certainly glad I got out of aviation seeing what's brewing on the horizon. . .

If I were a smart guy, I'd buy land out in the desert near MHV or somewhere where carriers can park "pickled" airplanes while they wait to see if the fuel costs drop. I imagine there will be a lot of aircraft retired, pickled or otherwise seeing "less than frequent" service pretty soon. Maybe I'll be able to buy myself a MD-88 or something. Won't be able to afford to fly it, but it'll sure be pretty to look at, right?

MRM · 04-01-2008, 09:56 AM

It's probably unique to Northwest and Detroit. Detroit is their biggest hub, even bigger than Minneapolis.

stomachmonkey · 04-01-2008, 10:46 AM

All depends on when how far out you book, what day of the week you leave and return, staying over a weekend etc...

onewhippedpuppy · 04-01-2008, 11:12 AM

SWA has a number of flights starting at $52 one way. Hard to drive anywhere for that.

stevepaa · 04-01-2008, 12:20 PM

If you fly to major hubs, the prices are good. Try flying to Newport News or Norfolk. A steep increase. $450 from SFO 3 months ahead of time.

And I agree that the $250 cross country on Jet Blue is too low to sustain the industry. We have gotten way too used to cheap fares after deregulation. Kind of like the fiscal bubble, air fares went through a prolonged artifical decrease when all the new airlines came out, and airlines restructured their routes to keep costs down, so we will now start paying the piper as we lose airlines and the prices go up.