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Working for airline yield/revenue management departments requires an advanced diploma from Hogwart's. Crucio!
In most cases, I'd imagine that all pricing is done by some sort of algorithm. They probably put in high demand dates like Christmas and Thanksgiving, and also increase all prices during summer. But I'd imagine everything else is done by some sort of calculating engine that monitors demand/searches, seats remaining, and past history of a specific flight.
Also, if an airline knows that they are the only ones to offer a certain flight, they charge more for it. That's why it's more expensive to fly non stop from DFW to Paris (American Airlines is the only airline offering non-stop) than ATL to Paris (which has Delta and Air France non-stop).
On another note, for being one of the biggest airports in the country, DFW really needs to increase focus on Europe. Most international flights seem focused on Spanish speaking countries, but that's probably because of the people who live in Texas and the location of Texas.
In most cases, I'd imagine that all pricing is done by some sort of algorithm. They probably put in high demand dates like Christmas and Thanksgiving, and also increase all prices during summer. But I'd imagine everything else is done by some sort of calculating engine that monitors demand/searches, seats remaining, and past history of a specific flight.
Of course, and the YM programs are among the most closely held secrets in the industry. It's the programmers who need to be skilled in the dark arts.
But there actually are human beings (or similar) in YM departments; sometimes I've needed to have a seat in some particular bucket released or I've needed someone to disambiguate a fare class. For example on American Airlines the "A" bucket is both a discounted first class paid fare and a mileage upgrade fare, and it will take a YM person to pull a seat from paid inventory when the robots are saying "no" to an upgrade. So they do exist, possibly in cages.
Flying from Anchorage to Honolulu in December is more expensive than flying from Boston or D.C. to Honolulu. But the latter two flights take more than double the time. It is all supply and demand.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roadking2003
The key is in your OP; Supply and Demand.
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and airport fees / time of day / airline premiums / discounts depending on trying to capture 'Market Share' in a region / gate availability ....
I like to use sites that give you the opportunity to try a bunch of different routes to your destination, and also ones that list all the bargain fares from particular origination spots. (I often don't care as much where I am going, as the low fare availability (retired / I'm just exploring many destinations)
I saw a flight one time from NYC - Paris that was $200 more expensive than a flight from NYC - Atlanta - Paris. Sometimes these prices make no sense to me.
Makes perfect sense, routing through the hub (assuming it's Delta or a partner) makes a huge number of itineraries possible whereas the direct route is much more limited - supply and demand.
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