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Old 02-08-2018, 04:51 PM
 
Location: North Idaho
32,565 posts, read 47,729,085 times
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Did you price LAN airlines?

The city of Las Vegas subsidizes some flights. Keep 'em cheap to keep the gamblers flowing in.

But I agree airline pricing doesn't make much sense.
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Old 02-08-2018, 04:57 PM
 
2,887 posts, read 5,121,369 times
Reputation: 3663
Quote:
Originally Posted by TowBar View Post
Yeah, those dates and prices are pretty close to what I used/came up with. Just don't understand how it is cheaper to fly from Vegas, via Houston, then it is to fly directly from Houston. And really don't understand how the price variance ($477) for the same airplane from Vegas vs. Houston is so drastically different. I mean I can sometimes get a roundtrip flight from San Antonio to Vegas for $80 on Frontier. So, assuming I was travelling without significant luggage, I could theoretically fly from San Antonio, to Vegas, to Houston, to Panama City cheaper than I could fly from San Antonio to Panama City via Houston. Guess that is some sort of airline pricing secret. I have noticed that it usually seems to cost more to fly anywhere from San Antonio than it does to go to the same location from either Austin or Houston. Maybe something to do with the fees airlines are charged to operate out of San Antonio vs. the other airports?
Airport fees can play a marginal role but the main thing to understand is that pricing is based on origin and destination airports (in your case Vegas-PTY) and not the actual route, so you can often come up with crazy examples. Costlier airports to fly from sometimes exist because it really does cost airlines more (few direct flights etc.) but many times it’s simply because airlines think they can extract additional money from the people who live there.

Edit — since you mention ITA, you can check the full fare rules and then try to understand how fare buckets work..
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Old 02-08-2018, 05:03 PM
 
Location: rain city
2,957 posts, read 12,701,973 times
Reputation: 4973
Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke View Post
Did you price LAN airlines?

The city of Las Vegas subsidizes some flights. Keep 'em cheap to keep the gamblers flowing in.

But I agree airline pricing doesn't make much sense.

I like LAN, but I saw no indication that LAN serves the US to Panama route. LAN has a limited presence in the US air travel market. Skiplagged will include any airline that serves the market, no matter the nationality of the airline. One of the reasons I use skiplagged.

We flew LAN to Peru last year from Los Angeles. I had a devil of a time finding the flight as it only flies in/out of LAX 3 times a week.

I know Copa does a Chicago/Panama run but I found no trace of it doing a search for the OP.
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Old 02-09-2018, 06:44 AM
bUU
 
Location: Florida
12,077 posts, read 10,679,221 times
Reputation: 8798
Quote:
Originally Posted by azoria View Post
It is not possible to understand airline pricing.
I disagree. It is easy to understand: Pricing is based on supply and demand. Supply may be "the same", because that's a reflection of seats in aircraft, but demand is something else. If there are more people* in Texas wanting to go to Panama City than there are people in Las Vegas wanting to go to Panama City and/or people wanting to go from Las Vegas to Texas, then the Texas to Panama City fare will be higher than the Las Vegas to Panama City fare.



* It's not that simple actually. It's not strictly the number of people, but the nature of their demand as translated into dollars.
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Old 02-09-2018, 07:14 AM
 
Location: Savannah GA/Lk Hopatcong NJ
13,384 posts, read 28,660,475 times
Reputation: 12025
Quote:
Originally Posted by TowBar View Post
Yeah, those dates and prices are pretty close to what I used/came up with. Just don't understand how it is cheaper to fly from Vegas, via Houston, then it is to fly directly from Houston. And really don't understand how the price variance ($477) for the same airplane from Vegas vs. Houston is so drastically different. I mean I can sometimes get a roundtrip flight from San Antonio to Vegas for $80 on Frontier. So, assuming I was travelling without significant luggage, I could theoretically fly from San Antonio, to Vegas, to Houston, to Panama City cheaper than I could fly from San Antonio to Panama City via Houston. Guess that is some sort of airline pricing secret. I have noticed that it usually seems to cost more to fly anywhere from San Antonio than it does to go to the same location from either Austin or Houston. Maybe something to do with the fees airlines are charged to operate out of San Antonio vs. the other airports?
That may be the key. I used to question why it was so much cheaper to fly from West Palm Beach to Newark, a 2.5 hour drive for me , then to fly from Fort Myers to Newark a 30 minute drive for me.

A UPS driver whose run was from the Ft Myers airport told me the "landing/take off fees" for the airline were much higher in Ft Myers, what ever the hell that means
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Old 02-09-2018, 07:30 AM
 
Location: equator
11,035 posts, read 6,586,897 times
Reputation: 25523
It is truly incomprehensible. I just booked our flight from Venice to Quito (LOOOONG flight) for a mere $450. But if add the final leg to our nearest airport ($75 if booked alone) the total jumps up to $1,300.


WHAAAAT?? Makes no sense at all.
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Old 02-09-2018, 10:42 AM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
19,398 posts, read 27,703,839 times
Reputation: 36050
Economics 101: Supply and Demand.

In the case of a airline tickets, the supply changes every minute. Demand is more static - which is why airlines infrequently add or delete a route.

The airport fees make a difference as well. But not as much as supply and demand.
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Old 02-09-2018, 11:05 AM
 
552 posts, read 1,057,663 times
Reputation: 638
Quote:
Originally Posted by IonRedline08 View Post
For when are you trying to go? I see flights in May for 539
Mid March
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Old 02-09-2018, 12:21 PM
 
386 posts, read 363,477 times
Reputation: 370
In the perceived insanity, sanity exists in the massively automated # of flight pricing factors, permutations, etc. Especially for individuals who may not fly too much, it doesn't appear so on the surface. However, some of the many factors weighing into flight pricing calculations are mentioned in prior messages. For example, fairly self-explanatory landing/departure fees airlines must pay for airport A vs airports B, C ... Z and similarly obvious differences in local/state tourism taxes.

A few factors which have not been mentioned: specific day(s) of intended travel, day(s) of the week flight searches and bookings are made, time of the year, time of day, etc. Some people may not like the appearance of pricing insanity, but ultimately supply and demand, relative airline costs versus projected potential revenue, and other basic accounting, economics, and marketing considerations absolutely apply. The more one flies, the less insane flight pricing begins to appear.
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Old 02-09-2018, 12:55 PM
 
5,462 posts, read 3,020,941 times
Reputation: 3271
Quote:
Originally Posted by TowBar View Post
I am researching a trip to Panama City, Panama. I live in San Antonio. The easiest route is to fly from San Antonio to Panama City via either Houston (United) or Atlanta (Delta). The cheapest fare for that flight, on either airline, is $812. Sometimes the cost to drive to Houston and fly from there is significantly cheaper; enough to justify the 4 hour drive each way. In this case the cost from Houston is $503.


OK, so I learn that there are flights from Las Vegas to Panama City, and decided to check that pricing just out of curiosity. The price is as low as $421, which surprised me. For comparison purposes however I picked a United flight with a cost of $436. That flight stops in Houston where you must change planes to go onward to Panama City. So first I am wondering why is it almost $70 cheaper ($436 vs. $503) to fly out of Vegas, since you have to stop in Houston to begin with? Next I looked at the actual flight number (UA1727) that goes from Houston to Panama for the $436 fare. I then checked the fare for that same exact flight (UA1727) if you catch it from Houston to Panama, and the cost is $913! Wow! So, if I wanted to drive to Houston to catch that flight it would cost me $477 more than flying to Vegas, and then coming back to Houston to catch the same plane? Why is that?
Book the lowest from SAT to some city like NYC or LA via IAH. Make a IAH- Panama city booking separately . Get down at IAH and take your flight. Worked once for me , but I didn't have checkin luggage though.


I booked to Austin and hopped off at IAH.
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