Trip Report:ACT/PHL, Fun with Fares...

Sunday morn, my spouse set off on a short notice (2 days) trip to Philly on
a ticket paid for by my daughter's emplyer...Mother's Day away fringe
benefit.

Fares varied with routing and time en route from a low of $640 on a strange
journey, 12 hours each way, (AA)ACT/DFW, (AA)DFW/MCO, (US)MCO/PHL and RTN
by the same lines and timeframe. She chose not to visit Florida...

Then came a group @ $1445-1448, and then the sensible but not always
quickest @ $2073-2076. We didn't check WN, not wanting to drive to Love (
and purchase 2 tickets, one to an adjoining state or HOU, a second to PHL),
Austin or Houston to depart.

Her choice, one of the $1445 skeds so as not to abuse the buyer's
hospitality too much and the trip...

DPT ACT 902A, AA(Eagle)3358, ARR DFW 957A
DPT DFW 1105A, AA402, ARR PHL 318P

DPT PHL 148P, AA471 (DFW stop 1.5 hours), ARR IAH 625P
DPT IAH 725P, CO9545, ARR ACT 825P (a extra loop thrown in for sightseeing
purposes I suppose...actually that AA - now competing with WN,
PHL/Houston - charges less to fly PHL/IAH - even thru DFW - than PHL/DFW,
so much more than it pays for more than a CO IAH/ACT one way, amusing but
plumb ridiculous)

On the return leg, guessing the answer, she asked the AA counter staff what
it would cost to rework her ticket to debark at DFW and fly direct to ACT
on AA, abandoning the DFW/IAH leg and the CO IAH/ACT hop.

The answer (and not unexpected)....$440. additional

At the same time, she was talking to AA on the phone, which would sell her
a one way, DFW/ACT, for only $150.00 ($1.50 per mile), not realizing that
she would be a "walk off" at DFW and a no show for the next two legs of her
original ticket.

She didn't, but arrived home later, angry enough at AA not to use them for
a couple of upcoming trips, convinced that AA should have offered her
a "deal" no worse than she could make over the phone (and by employing a
well-known and oft utilized form of cheating).

Her question echoes the perspectives of thousands of travelers for who the
major airlines' claim to providing "customer service" rings pretty hollow
much of the time...."Why ask? They don't offer any help when you do."

TMO

"Olivers" wrote in message
...
Sunday morn, my spouse set off on a short notice (2 days) trip to Philly
on
a ticket paid for by my daughter's emplyer...Mother's Day away fringe
benefit.

Fares varied with routing and time en route from a low of $640 on a
strange
journey, 12 hours each way, (AA)ACT/DFW, (AA)DFW/MCO, (US)MCO/PHL and RTN
by the same lines and timeframe. She chose not to visit Florida...

Then came a group @ $1445-1448, and then the sensible but not always
quickest @ $2073-2076. We didn't check WN, not wanting to drive to Love (
and purchase 2 tickets, one to an adjoining state or HOU, a second to
PHL),
Austin or Houston to depart.

Your spouse's quest is a superb example of why the majors are losing
customers in droves to airlines like Southwest and JetBlue. The fare schemes
used by the majors are ABSURD and have been for many years. Will Southwest
swing a deal with a regional so they can serve smaller cities like Waco? I
bet they will in the not-to-distant future.

Quantum Foam Guy extrapolated from data available...



Your spouse's quest is a superb example of why the majors are losing
customers in droves to airlines like Southwest and JetBlue. The fare
schemes used by the majors are ABSURD and have been for many years.
Will Southwest swing a deal with a regional so they can serve smaller
cities like Waco? I bet they will in the not-to-distant future.



No, smaller markets such as Waco, Bryan/College Station and Killeen simply
don't "fit" the WN business plan, although WN pulls many travelers who
drive to the nearest WN service. The majors use contract commters to serve
the small markets because they can adjust seat availability and flight
intervals at much lower cost. While AA and CO likely lose money on what
they pay to the contractors or owned subsidiaries for hauling pax to/fm the
little airports, their hope is to "make it up" in profits from the rest of
the ticket.

There used to be an interesting BSchool "problem" floating around down
here, dating from the time when WN was about to move from serving only
Dallas, Houston and san Antonio to some longer flights to distant cities.

The premise, Greyhound, back then still healthy, "dicovers" a new discount
airline and the two managements decide that air travel is in reality no
different from bus travel, and that Greyhound will start special service
from small cities (from non-traditional departure points, shopping center
parking lots - close to where business and pleasure air travelers live) to
major airports within 150 miles direct to the airline's gates. The one
class from which I saw an analysis decided that even with 1974 gas prices,
actually in real dollars higher than today's, more people would rather
drive, and that only a single joint ticket and combines fare, likely
illegal for different common carriers of different modes under federal
antitrust laws, would make a difference.

TMO