We travel by air 5 or 6 times a year and were shocked today when booking travel to Florida in March. With oil priced at only 25% of what it cost 2 years ago, what gives?
First, we find fares to Florida 20-30% higher than a year or two ago. I know the national average is less, but in shopping for flights that's what we find. Perhaps because low cost carrier Southwest has either raised fares a lot or reduced capacity.
Second, we find a new "class" of service at Delta. Their economy fare (not really cheap) now prevents choosing your (tiny) seat until after checking in for the flight, almost assuring you that you'll end up seated in between two behemoth passengers. If you want to choose a seat earlier you need to pay an extra $100 ($200 round trip) and upgrade to main cabin seating. What a scam.
Third, flight options and schedules have been shaved way back. At one of our favorite departure airports, Flint Michigan, I'll swear Southwest has scuttled half the Florida flights they inherited from AirTran a few years ago. Of those that remain, few are nonstop as they used to be.
It's funny until you start to think of where air fares will go once oil recovers and gets back up to $50, $60 or $75 bl.
I couldn't find anything to link that's current. However, I did see where DOJ is investigating for possible price collusion. LOL!
Comments
Ya, quite the screw job, eh? Need to note all of this to our two U.S. senators and to your U.S. congress person.
Past this.............Allegiant will take up the non-stops vacated by Southwest from Bishop to Florida; but not until April. Southwest claims they had to move aircraft to other new markets and increase Chicago routes. If Chicago routes don't make money, Southwest will likely leave the area.
Several stories in this link.
Good fortune with this.
Catch
(PS - We're a bit closer to TVC, but avoid it in the winter due to unreliability)
@Hank Hey,too bad you're not going to Mexico...The water's safer there? Enjoy your getaway.It's winter in the midwest.
Four days after declaring a state of emergency over a water crisis in Flint, Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder is providing the city with bottled water..
You gotta love how this evolved.
“Their one job was to make sure our water was safe,” Melissa Mays, a Flint resident, said of Michigan environmental officials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/us/flint-wants-safe-water-and-someone-to-answer-for-its-crisis.html?_r=0
https://www.google.com/search?q=flint+michigan+water&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Derf
No need to check Derf. We've already bit the bullet.
My New Year's resolution was to learn how to manage my rewards points better. The Points Guy has compiled a list of how much they are worth in dollar terms: http://thepointsguy.com/2014/01/just-how-much-is-an-airline-mile-or-hotel-point-worth/
Silver is the remnants of the old Gulfstream regional carrier which also ran the Gulfstream pilot training school in Fort Lauderdale until the FAA fined their pants off 5-10 years ago for using unsafe aircraft and crews. At one time, the co-pilots on the Gulfstream planes were actually paying to be flying the planes (as part of their training) rather than being compensated for their work.
Re Flint - AirTran built a sizeable and fantastic low-cost service out of there over a decade. Was easily reachable via I-75 from many northern Michigan locations. Even people from our UP drove 4-5 hours to access the reliable service. Unfortunately, they began to compete with the Detroit metro market an hour south of there (where Southwest already had a large presence). Essentially. Southwest bought out a viable competitor in the region and (I believe) is now in the process of shutting it down (although they deny that).
But, If I "buy out" a competitor and than shut their existing operation down a few years later (essentially removing that capacity from the market) is that not monopolistic or illegal?
In the case of air carriers such hanky-panky is easy to pull off because they can pull-out and take their airplanes elsewhere, not being tied down to any infrastructure. The real victims here may be the people of the Flint area, as mega-bucks have been poured into FNT airport over the past decade enlarging the facility. And a great many jobs were created.
When Apple was accused of colluding with book publishers and found guilty, its PR defense was that what it was doing was because Amazon had a monopoly status in the electronic book buisness. But it didn't fly because what Amazon was doing with its clout was twisting the publishers to allow it to sell at a LOWER price than what the publishers wanted which was good for the consumer. What Apple wanted to do while claiming to fight a monopoly was the opposite for the consumer and good for Apple and the publishers. Apple wanted to get a market for itself by trying to deny the ability for Amazon to sell at a lower price with its clout and get a good deal for itself with the publishers for helping them with the "Amazon problem". Judge didn't buy that despite Apple fooling some of the media with its spin. So if you are a benevolent monopolist and use your clout to bring prices down for the consumer or have it lower than if you weren't a monopolist, it is not illegal at all. This is why having a monopoly by itself isn't illegal. You have to target a specific practice that is possible because of that position and show that it hurts consumers in the long run by not letting competition undercut artificially high prices somehow.
Derf
I have done this a few times in my frequent traveling years when not too inconvenient.
Derf
Regards,
Ted
https://www.southwest.com/reservations/price-reservations.html?int=
Oh, and what's that line about no taxation without representation?
Mona
But wanted to thank everyone for all the suggestions.