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We were looking to fly into Manchester and that included one stop. Flying non-stop into London was only $50 more. I looked into driving to Atlanta or Raleigh and flying out and it wasn't much cheaper.
Couple of additional points about hidden city ticketing:
- The final stop should be close to your desired stop. (e.g. Greenville for Charlotte). That way, if your sneaky plan is foiled, you can still fly the whole itinerary and have a reasonable drive home.
- There are rumors that airlines will cancel your frequent flyer account if you abuse hidden city ticketing. If this is true, then you will want to either book the ticket without your FF account, or make sure that it's empty of miles. I avoid hidden-city tickets because I don't want to lose my FF status and accumulated miles!
Bottom line. we as Charlotte residents should not be subject to pay almost $500 for a direct flight. Yes I know that we are paying for convenience...but cmon now.Yes for some people $500 is a drop in the bucket and its nothing for them to pay. But for a single person, 1 income household it can be a little pricey. Poor people like to travel every once in a blue moon too.
Just sayin.
I don't believe it's the job of the airlines to provide service for all people. If you can't afford it, you don't fly. You can take the train or Greyhound.
Airways has an occupancy rate of close to 90% across the entire airline, on a large airplane only a handful of tickets go unsold.
If you want to save money the cheapest flights are going to be in the wee morning hours out of the hubs, they are almost always empty (hub to outstation). After that first flight for the rest of the day the flights are going to be completely full most likely.
Fuel prices have tripled in the past decade, labor costs have decreased by close to 50%, there really is no room for cost cutting anymore. For once the airlines are actually squeaking by with a profit, IIRC the margin for Airways is around 1%. It's incredibly low.
We were looking to fly into Manchester and that included one stop. Flying non-stop into London was only $50 more. I looked into driving to Atlanta or Raleigh and flying out and it wasn't much cheaper.
Goes to prove there's often no working it out. Raleigh used to be considerably cheaper when we first started coming here but now as you say it's not much cheaper and sometimes more.
My mother wanted to fly one way CLT to Detroit, but it was going to be $450. I drove her to Greensboro where she got on a flight to Charlotte and changed planes and got on that very same flight from CLT to Detroit. Her total ticket cost was $250 from Greensboro to Detroit. Go figure.
Location: Charlotte,NC, US, North America, Earth, Alpha Quadrant,Milky Way Galaxy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by XcapefromNJ
My mother wanted to fly one way CLT to Detroit, but it was going to be $450. I drove her to Greensboro where she got on a flight to Charlotte and changed planes and got on that very same flight from CLT to Detroit. Her total ticket cost was $250 from Greensboro to Detroit. Go figure.
Exactly! That's so crazy - Why on earth the same connecting flight in CLT if you embark in CLT is $200 more. I guess they simply get their asking price hence why it's not changing any time soon.
[quote=wheelsup;30976793]I don't believe it's the job of the airlines to provide service for all people. If you can't afford it, you don't fly. You can take the train or Greyhound.
Wow!!! - Why the "stank" attitude about not being able to afford to fly. And no, not taking the train or greyhound to the westcoast - no thank you buddy. Nobody said anything about the job of airlines providing service to all people. Besides what is wrong with providing affordable airfare for all types of people. I personally don't have a problem with it.
Wow!!! - Why the "stank" attitude about not being able to afford to fly. And no, not taking the train or greyhound to the westcoast - no thank you buddy. Nobody said anything about the job of airlines providing service to all people. Besides what is wrong with providing affordable airfare for all types of people. I personally don't have a problem with it.
People don't complain about the cost of filet mignon and whine that they can't get it for the cost of brisket, why air travel is different I'm not sure.
In your opinion what would you cut to reduce airfare to lower prices?
The $15,000 a year wage the Flight Attendants make?
The $10/hr the ramp and gate agents make?
Maintenance?
Maybe the airlines could just stop paying taxes? Since 1/5-1/4 of the ticket price is now for taxes
For CLT-ROC isn't a big deal for business travelers because early pm arrivals provides plenty of time to prepare for the next day. These flight times aren't randomly developed and are usually determined via capacity/volume and pricing models. As a business traveler I'd rather take the direct route to ROC for pm arrival (leaving home at 5pm) versus having to leave at noon out of RDU with a connection in ATL, PHL, DC, etc. Connections can be draining on business travel and God forbid the connecting flight is delayed or out of service for what ever reason. I've had to stay overnight or take some extended route to arrive late night....it can be a mess.
Anyway you slice it, Charlotte is a mid-size metro and US Airways provides a lot of options and convience with those direct flights, even if 1 or 2 a day.
Got an associate who does a lot of business in Baton Rouge and up till last year had connections in Hou, Atl, NO, etc. Now, US Airways offers nonstop service to BR...it saved the person a ton of time and headache..and the ticket prices aren't much of a difference.
I'm a business traveler. An 8PM flight isn't convenient. If you're a business traveler you don't want to be travelling that late at night unless you have to. CLT-ROC [I was on that path weekly for 5-6 months last year.] Meant: CLT-[PHL,EWR,IAD,LGA (screw that place),DCA,ATL,DTW]-ROC. Business travelers travel on early Monday morning, and come back in the afternoon of Thursday or early-ish Friday.
I think they should repeal the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Flying was much more pleasant before that went into effect and we didn't have all this hub and spoke high price nonsense in places like Charlotte.
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