Airline tickets and pricing weirdness - HELP!

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » June 9, 2005, 7:12 pm

I'm hoping someone knows what the hell is going on. I've been wondering about this for a while.

There's a huge difference in the cost of round-trip airfare depending on your originating location. I've checked tons of online ticket vendors, airline websites etc. The difference does not seem to be time of year or day of departure or anything, it seems to be that tickets originating in North America are substantially more expensive than those

For instance:
A round trip Copenhagen-Montreal, Montreal-Copenhagen cost around $650-700.
A round trip Montreal-Copenhagen, Copenhagen-Montreal cost around $1100

A round trip Copenhagen-Atlanta, Atlanta-Copenhagen: $671
Cheapest round trip Atlanta-Copenhagen, Copenhagen-ATL: $1141

Expedia.com, quick check
Round trip Copenhagen-Las Vegas: $1170
Las Vegas-Copenhagen, same dates: $1463

Using a danish ticket vendor, Copenhagen-Vegas: $729

What the fuck?

I am sure there is some sort of reason for this that just eludes me, but it makes no logical sense. The flights are the same. There is still one trip from A to B and one from B to A. It's the Same Fucking Flight. So what's the deal? Can anyone explain?

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » June 9, 2005, 7:17 pm

its just as fucked up for domestic within the US.

they sell a certain number of seats on a flight at a discount fair. So maybe only 10 seats on that flight maximum could be at the $800 number. but the rest are at the higher number.

i have no clue anyway, its all fucked up.

i do know that a 1 cent increase in the cost of jet fuel costs Delta Airlines $25M. pretty wild.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » June 9, 2005, 7:17 pm

North American Air travel is still recovering from 9/11 most likely. Also, Air Canada is always retardedly expensive regardless of where you fly if they're the Montreal-Copenhagen flight.

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » June 9, 2005, 7:23 pm

That's not the issue. The issue is the discrepancy in pricing.

Look, if I fly two trips, one A to B and one B to A, it shouldn't matter in which order I do them as far as prices are concerned.

A to B then B to A : 1000 guineas
B to A then A to B : 1400 guineas

How can you (they) justify the difference in price?
And it's not that there's a special tax on buying tickets in the US or something. The Atlanta flight I quoted above, that ticket was bought on Expedia.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » June 9, 2005, 7:34 pm

i speculate that different brokers/services that sell tickets have different access to different rate classes of tickets.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » June 9, 2005, 7:40 pm

Time of year and percentage of tourists vs. business travellers on the various routes probably contributes.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » June 9, 2005, 8:13 pm

Supply and demand, there's more people fly out of the US, and yanks will pay higher fares.

I've never seen a flight that wasn't significantly cheaper TO the US than FROM the US, at any time of year.

Also have to take into account the US$ being over-valued.

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » June 9, 2005, 8:32 pm

BUT IT'S THE SAME TICKET, IT JUST IN INVERSE. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Time of year: Should not make a difference. The tickets are identical.

Supply and demand: Should not make a difference. The tickets are identical.

Yanks paying higher fares: Makes no sense. The tickets are identical.

Different brokers/services having different access: Shouldn't make a difference. As I wrote, buying a A-B B-A ticket on Expedia costs significantly more than buying a B-A A-B ticket on Expedia.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » June 9, 2005, 8:40 pm

In all my years of flying between Norway and the US I have noticed two things:

- It has always been cheaper to fly roundtrip starting in Norway. Cheaper by FAR. Same airlines, same flights.

- I have always been able to find the tickets (same tickets) cheaper in Norway. It has gotten so bad that my parents purchase the tickets for me in Norway and mail it over to me.

It has nothing to do with 9/11, was like this way before that. It is a friggin shame too since I strongly believe US (and the world) would benefit from more Americans flying abroad.

Sueven · Post by **Sueven** » June 9, 2005, 8:43 pm

Because they can and they make more money that way.

They don't need to justify why they do it because they're private corporations.

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » June 9, 2005, 8:52 pm

Some costs depend on if the airport is a major hub. I can fly for about half price by driving 30 minutes north to a smaller airport than I can by driving 30 minutes south to a major Delta hub. Completely ass-backwards.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » June 9, 2005, 11:04 pm

Drolgin Steingrinder wrote:BUT IT'S THE SAME TICKET, IT JUST IN INVERSE. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Not really.. if you're going Euro -> US -> Euro you will at most be on two flights at the same time as someone flying US -> Euro -> US.

And yes, supply and demand/exchange rates. Going from these prices, demand to fly to Australia is down a LOT since I last flew a couple years back.

SYD/LAX return: $1421.40 AUD (w/ China airlines.. scary) Jul?Aug

LAX/SYD return: $1005.65 USD ($1340 AUD -- WTF?!) Jul/Aug

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » June 9, 2005, 11:31 pm

Actually there's an inverse demand effect as well...if an airline can book a whole flight they can charge less per ticket...so time of day/day of week other current route factors lead to the volatile nature of airfare prices and demand in each leg on each day is variable.......I'm thinking the formulaic complexities in this would give Einstein a headache...

Sirensa · Post by **Sirensa** » June 9, 2005, 11:33 pm

Might have something to do with airline companies charging less to fly into the U.S. because they want to encourage tourist dollars spent in the U.S. - and charging more to fly out of the U.S. because if the U.S. isn't going to get your tourist money, they'll take it another way - ie higher flight price. Like I know some non-U.S. airlines get partnerships with U.S. airlines (like American) where the U.S. airline probably influences pricing in exchange for the extra business, etc.

Confusing? Yup - but we in the States like to make everything more difficult. (Hence, no metric system!)

Fyndina · Post by **Fyndina** » June 10, 2005, 12:38 am

actualy couple of reasons for it.

1) Because they can.... Europeans are more used to the discount prices on charters flying to southern Europe etc. (hey Southwest haven't reached everyone yet!)

2) A lot of tickets in Europe are sold trough brokers/discounters that buy in bulk from the airline (this does not explain why Expedia would be quoting different prices tho).

For Expedia the ticket can't possibly be excatly the same. It's impossible to get that to happen. i.e. the date could not be the same for all flights involved. The pricing for A ticket can vary from minute to minute. I have been in Expedia before and from me choosing a flight, until I get all the data entered to purchase, the price has changed (saved over $200 once because of this).

However. I'll get some answers out of a friend of mine who used to be in charge of scheduling and capacaty planning at Continental when I meet him next weekend.....

Post by **Sylvus** » June 10, 2005, 2:19 am

It's all because of the increased security following 9/11, taxes to pay for the department of homeland security, and things of that nature.

We pay more because we're much safer in the air and on the ground over here, you guys should really think about ramping up your prices a bit.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » June 10, 2005, 1:34 pm

I agree but it's even more fucked up than that. A friend of mine from Ireland flys home with his wife and kids to visit his parents 3 or 4 times a year. He NEVER puchases his tickets in the US he just sends his parents the money and they get them there for flights leaving in the US.

This guy is an EVP at the company I use to work for so it's not like he's broke or dosen't fly all the time anyway. What he has found is that his parents can get tickets from Memphis to Limerick round trip about $500 per ticket cheaper than he can get it through his travel agent... only difference is that they are purchased in Ireland rather than the US... WTF!

Marb

Seebs · Post by **Seebs** » June 10, 2005, 1:44 pm

I believe there are more Umlauts in the flight originating from Copenhagen, and those dots are spensive.

Could the point of origin have any effect on the initial taxation rate? That sounds logical.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 10, 2005, 1:54 pm

Seebs wrote:I believe there are more Umlauts in the flight originating from Copenhagen, and those dots are spensive.

Could the point of origin have any effect on the initial taxation rate? That sounds logical.

Last night, Drolgin's girlfriend saw his ö face. You know...ö, ö, ö!

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » June 10, 2005, 2:07 pm

Arborealus wrote:.......I'm thinking the formulaic complexities in this would give Einstein a headache...

considering how stupid the airlines are, i find this to be unlikely

Seebs · Post by **Seebs** » June 10, 2005, 3:41 pm

Thank you Winnow. I will smell Pepsi the remainder of the day as I just dispensed two ounces out my nostrils.