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#22
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why no last minute deals?
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#23
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why no last minute deals?
muttered....
On Fri, 02 Apr 2004 03:36:55 GMT, James Robinson wrote: Airlines have tried that type of last minute standby fare, they just gave it up decades ago when they found it didn't earn them any additional money. My first flight was at age 19 in 1953, more than 5 decades ago. Long ebfore jet airplanes. Long before computers. s. During the 1960s and until the mid-70s, a time when I sometimes took 10 and 20 flights a month to operate my nationwide business, there were no variations in fares and certainly no "last minute" walkup fares. Up through at least the 60s, military personnel traveling in uniform (and not with "TRs") routinely flew "StandBy", 1/2 price on most US majors. Some airline(s) offered student standby fares, and there were several foreign airlines which offered versions of standby fares to Europe. ALL fares were regulated by the government. Discounts and competitve pricing was not permitted. Many of us worked for corporations which had contract arrangements with airlines providing either on a "leg" or journey basis, a fixed price well below the official fare. Then there were folks who worked for lawyers, accountants, consultants or major vendors serving an airline...barter was certainly not unknown, usually in the form of fare reductions. I vaguely recall that WN back when it served only the DAL/HOU/SAT triangle peddled coupon books to good customers. Not subject to "regulation" since they flew only in Texas, WN would allow folks to pay in adnace to get the offpeak cheap rates for rush hour flights. The flight from O'Hare to New York and back was, as I recall, roughly $100, regardless if you flew on any of a 1/2 dozen airlines. The price was set and that was it. Tickets on one airline, for that reason, were fully exchangable and honored by all the others. Don't you recall the "routing discounts", the gimmickry by which the old regulated fares could be adapted? In 1970 or so, I could fly from ACT to LAX by way of San Diego, cheaper than I could fly DAL/LAX. That did not change until deregulation. Since that time, I have never heard or read of a single verifiable case of any airline offering a last minute auction or a discounted walkup fare. If no one has ever tried it, how can anyone argue that something else works better? It has been tried, in fact it used to be the normal method of selling tickets. Never happened. When? By whom? All the airlines in the 1960s offered last minute standby fares that were something like 50% of the regular fare. No. Could not have happened. As I said, prices were fixed during that time. No airline of the time would dare compete on price. Does anyone have any verififable facts to confirm the idea has been given a fair test? Unless I'm living in a parallel universe, it sure seems to me that "Priceline" is selling "pretty close to last minute" tickets at a substantial discount from what the airlines themselves would charge. Obviously, even with Priceline, about 24 hours is the minimum window prior to a flight, but the airlines have certainly made avialble to it "seats" at heavy discounts on a consignment basis. I'm not a big Priceline user, only twice, but the last time, I had a USAir ticket for $150 which the airline had wanted $800. TMO |
#24
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why no last minute deals?
wrote:
"Traveler" wrote: Priceline and Hotwire exist for this purpose and if you book the night before for an international flight, that is *almost* like a last-minute auction. Not at all. Priceline commits to prices for seats that they can sell for whatever they can get. Fools overpay because it's a blind auction in which they have no feedback as to what the seat sold for. Nevertheless you can get some very good last-minute deals with Priceline; sometimes much better than I've seen anywhere else. Of course it has its drawbacks... miguel -- Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu |
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