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I feel your pain. Gf and I were considering flying from Houston, TX to Charleston, SC for a brief moment. Although our trip is several months away, the BEST ticket price we're getting is $1000. We're not sure the price is going to go down. She's been monitoring the prices week by week and they have hardly changed at all. We're hesitant to fly anyway; security is such a hassle now. But it's a long drive-21 hours one way. At $1000, the choice is easy, since we can't afford the ticket.
When???
The cheapest round trip flights from Houston to Charleston for any dates in the next six months were priced from about $403-405 (with stops) and around $394 (nonstop). If you are very lucky, you may find prices as low as $311.
FYI- Can't help with the plane tix prices but there are several really really good credit card deals out there right now where you get some sweet amount of airline miles.
Southwest has a card where you spend something like 3k on it in 3 months to qualify....pay the 100 annual fee and then you get 50,000 sign-up points plus the 3k you got by spending the 3k to qualify.
That's 53,000 points which is around $900 worth of plane travel minus the $100 fee and you just got a free $800.
There is a Chase Sapphire card that has points that can go towards several airlines too.
No doubt there are other cards as well.
Best of luck!
My direct flight to Tampa is around $450 right now and last year I did it for $325. Not too long before that is was <300.
Europe and Asia seem to be doing just fine with pricing their tickets and running viable, profitable airline companies. The bottom line is that, if budget European air travel is any indication, people are just fine forgoing certain "luxuries" like the ability to choose their seat, having in-flight meal service (which sucks in the US as is) and the ability to check a bag, among other "luxuries" if it means saving serious dollars . . . for those who want them, they can pay a premium to get them (again, looking to budget European airlines, plenty of people will choose to do so). Again, this is something that is already being done, and viably so, by airlines in other countries; no, traditional airlines haven't fully embraced this model in other countries, which is why they continue to lose customers to the budget airlines. No need to reinvent (or invent) the wheel here.
I don't understand this concept. It costs the airline literally nothing to allow assigned seats, having cattle call seating is just an excuse to up charge for something that was always included in the regular ticket price as an expectation of all flyers. And who can make a transatlantic flight without checked baggage, other than someone on a one-day business trip?
I don't understand this concept. It costs the airline literally nothing to allow assigned seats, having cattle call seating is just an excuse to up charge for something that was always included in the regular ticket price as an expectation of all flyers. And who can make a transatlantic flight without checked baggage, other than someone on a one-day business trip?
I always check a bag but know many people who don't. It's about choices and lifestyle but many people are able to pack light.
When???
The cheapest round trip flights from Houston to Charleston for any dates in the next six months were priced from about $403-405 (with stops) and around $394 (nonstop). If you are very lucky, you may find prices as low as $311.
Yeah, there's something strange with the prices some people claim they're getting. Sounds like going to a library, picking a random aisle and then complaining you couldn't find the book you wanted.
United flies IAH-CHS nonstop, prices are higher in the summer (~$550) or Sundays but in general it's $350-450. Delta IAH-ATL-CHS is cheaper. I played with ITA a bit and couldn't even find a $1000 flight for the dates I checked.
I don't understand this concept. It costs the airline literally nothing to allow assigned seats, having cattle call seating is just an excuse to up charge for something that was always included in the regular ticket price as an expectation of all flyers. And who can make a transatlantic flight without checked baggage, other than someone on a one-day business trip?
While you're correct largely about the concept of charging for seats (though, let's be clear, even traditional airlines have started to engage in this practice, albeit on a smaller scale, by making a significant number of "desirable" coach seats as "coach preferred." etc., which they charge an extra fee to book), this is one way that budget airlines make up for lost revenues due to their lower standard fares. But, even if people take this option (the point is that it is an option and not selecting it doesn't change the fact that one doesn't have a reserved seat), the price of their ticket is still significantly lower than traditional airlines.
And plenty of people can and do make transatlantic flights without checked baggage; and this includes more than just people doing a one-day business trip. I was in the UK for a week in January and didn't check a bag. While there is a fee to check baggage, Norwegian lets you bring on a free carry-on of up to 22 pounds, which was more than sufficient for my trip and could've lasted me even longer, and one small bag/item. It's certainly very doable and, from my experience, plenty of people are finding no problem doing so; it seemed to be a struggle to find people who were checking bags on my flights and, at least from conversations with people seated around me, these included people who were making fairly long trips (i.e. 1-3 weeks or longer). For those people who are going on extremely long trips, well there's always the option of washing your clothes once your on the other side. Of course, some people will decide to check a bag, and that's an option available to them. But, as is the case with choosing seats, even if people choose this option, they are still looking at considerable savings on their flight when its all said and done!
A relative is flying back to Ireland tomorrow on aer lingus and it was going to be 400 euro more if she left on a weekday VS the weekend.
The airlines have us coming and going.....
Isn't it just a case of supply and demand pricing?
Don't Las Vegas hotels charge you 2x-3x more for weekend stays than midweek stays?
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