- Thread starter Mcinbrass
- Start date
American raises fares
It is called C-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-M !
When the "demand" for seats goes up,so does the price of those seats! All airlines track "demand",and adjust their prices accordingly.Last time I checked,American Airlines was not a "Charity",so you have to buy your ticket! Sorry,try Air Dominicana I think they sell seats on an,"As needed" fare basis! Poor people fly free, rich people make up the differance. Criss Colon
When the "demand" for seats goes up,so does the price of those seats! All airlines track "demand",and adjust their prices accordingly.Last time I checked,American Airlines was not a "Charity",so you have to buy your ticket! Sorry,try Air Dominicana I think they sell seats on an,"As needed" fare basis! Poor people fly free, rich people make up the differance. Criss Colon
Also called M--O-N-0-P-O-L-Y
American also virtually has no competition! When I book a trip from California to POP it can cost anywhere from $550 to $1300.
Aslo, American really gets you when you depart from the DR. Same ticket same dates... from US to DR $600. From DR to US, $1100. Just got to keep on looking daily and grab the good priced ticket when you can.
American also virtually has no competition! When I book a trip from California to POP it can cost anywhere from $550 to $1300.
Aslo, American really gets you when you depart from the DR. Same ticket same dates... from US to DR $600. From DR to US, $1100. Just got to keep on looking daily and grab the good priced ticket when you can.
$550.00 Muy Barato
If I see a $550.00 fare from Chicago to POP I jump on it. That's about the cheapest I've ever paid.
If I see a $550.00 fare from Chicago to POP I jump on it. That's about the cheapest I've ever paid.
Well they must make some $$$$$ money, now with all the new security programs, airlines has to spend a lot of $$$$$.
AA still loosing money, i hope they dont have to file for charter 11.
American, the world's biggest airline, posted a record quarterly loss of $798 million as sales dropped to $3.8 billion, down from $4.9 billion in the same period a year ago.
Continental, the No. 5 airline, reported a loss of $149 million on sales of $1.74 billion, down from $2.43 billion a year ago. Continental also received federal aid of $174 million.
AA still loosing money, i hope they dont have to file for charter 11.
American, the world's biggest airline, posted a record quarterly loss of $798 million as sales dropped to $3.8 billion, down from $4.9 billion in the same period a year ago.
Continental, the No. 5 airline, reported a loss of $149 million on sales of $1.74 billion, down from $2.43 billion a year ago. Continental also received federal aid of $174 million.
Kenoshachris
I wonder what it would cost you to fly to Toronto Chris? I've seen air-only (just last week as a matter of fact) Toronto to PP 239.00 rt Canadien, although to the south coast it costs around 489.00(I have no idea why???)So at 239.00 CAD is about 170.00 USD, so if you could get a return for around 150 or so, it might even be worth it, it the times lined up? We've often thought of going to the North coast and taking a bus back to the south. The difference is right on the borderline for us for the inconvenience, it's around a 5 hundred dollar savings, but then with the luggauge and the time factor, it makes it JUST not worth it. I've never looked into flying across the countrie(DR) What's the price for that?
I wonder what it would cost you to fly to Toronto Chris? I've seen air-only (just last week as a matter of fact) Toronto to PP 239.00 rt Canadien, although to the south coast it costs around 489.00(I have no idea why???)So at 239.00 CAD is about 170.00 USD, so if you could get a return for around 150 or so, it might even be worth it, it the times lined up? We've often thought of going to the North coast and taking a bus back to the south. The difference is right on the borderline for us for the inconvenience, it's around a 5 hundred dollar savings, but then with the luggauge and the time factor, it makes it JUST not worth it. I've never looked into flying across the countrie(DR) What's the price for that?
flight prices
Doug,
Please share with me; where have you seen these prices!? When I look around the absolute cheapest I've seen was around $600 (from Ottawa using GoTravelDirect, but only to Puerto Plata), with most being closer to $800. (mostly Air Transat from Mirabel -- I could go from Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto, whatever's cheapest)
I'm lookin' in the wrong places...
doug said:
Doug,
Please share with me; where have you seen these prices!? When I look around the absolute cheapest I've seen was around $600 (from Ottawa using GoTravelDirect, but only to Puerto Plata), with most being closer to $800. (mostly Air Transat from Mirabel -- I could go from Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto, whatever's cheapest)
I'm lookin' in the wrong places...
I bought a ticket from Chicago to Santiago for $510 on Dec 28 for travel in May. The next day the prices went up. I think that ticket now is something like $675. But, the sale had been announced for weeks along with the ending date. If you're not already, you should get on AA's mailing list. They mail out the special deals every tuesday
Flight and Package Deals
Here are some flight and package deals that were in the Toronto Star Saturday Jan 5/02. Fly into La Romana, Dominican Bay(formerly Boca Chica Beach Resort)668.00 1 WK and All-Inclusive, Jan 7,13,14,20 and 21st for 668.00 on Skyservice with "The Travel Hotline" Phone 416-265-7500. I can't go to Toronto for the weekend for that much, with a hotel for a coupla nights.....around 150.00 each night and gas there and back...around 100 bucks and meals while there....coupla hundred.....it's cheaper to go to the DR for a week and eat and drink all you want! (This is not including the wife shopping in downtown TO of course....lol)
Flights only....with "Bel-Air Travel" .....Jan 7th and 13th Punta Cana 238.00 Puerta Plata 298.00.
All these prices are in CAD of course and they don't include taxes, which are around 107.00 (most of the time....they change once in a while...I have no idea why....and if the price of the flight is 400 or 100 the taxes are the same....107.00!!!!)
Here are some flight and package deals that were in the Toronto Star Saturday Jan 5/02. Fly into La Romana, Dominican Bay(formerly Boca Chica Beach Resort)668.00 1 WK and All-Inclusive, Jan 7,13,14,20 and 21st for 668.00 on Skyservice with "The Travel Hotline" Phone 416-265-7500. I can't go to Toronto for the weekend for that much, with a hotel for a coupla nights.....around 150.00 each night and gas there and back...around 100 bucks and meals while there....coupla hundred.....it's cheaper to go to the DR for a week and eat and drink all you want! (This is not including the wife shopping in downtown TO of course....lol)
Flights only....with "Bel-Air Travel" .....Jan 7th and 13th Punta Cana 238.00 Puerta Plata 298.00.
All these prices are in CAD of course and they don't include taxes, which are around 107.00 (most of the time....they change once in a while...I have no idea why....and if the price of the flight is 400 or 100 the taxes are the same....107.00!!!!)
Also guys, talking about fares and ticketing.
If you really want to find best prices , most airlines has the same system on fares regulations.
Make all you reservations in advances, because markerting has very few's diferent fares on flights. You may find out that out of a 200 seat there is only 10 low fare, like L, U, L14nt,L21nt fares.
Also few fares has too manys restrictions.Please check on-line booking, travel agencys and call the airlines and compare prices.
have a nice day
sam
If you really want to find best prices , most airlines has the same system on fares regulations.
Make all you reservations in advances, because markerting has very few's diferent fares on flights. You may find out that out of a 200 seat there is only 10 low fare, like L, U, L14nt,L21nt fares.
Also few fares has too manys restrictions.Please check on-line booking, travel agencys and call the airlines and compare prices.
have a nice day
sam
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by doug
I I've seen air-only (just last week as a matter of fact) Toronto to PP 239.00 rt Canadien, although to the south coast it costs around 489.00(I have no idea why???)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am curious as well. I am always checking the papers and prices definitely went up since last year. I was checking prices from Toronto to SD and with taxes it was worked out to $700-800. Yes I believe flying to PP is cheaper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by doug
I I've seen air-only (just last week as a matter of fact) Toronto to PP 239.00 rt Canadien, although to the south coast it costs around 489.00(I have no idea why???)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am curious as well. I am always checking the papers and prices definitely went up since last year. I was checking prices from Toronto to SD and with taxes it was worked out to $700-800. Yes I believe flying to PP is cheaper.
Getting the best air fare from the USA - details
I've posted this before, but I'll post it again for anybody that did not catch it the first time.
The best way to get a good air fare and applies mostly to people departing from the USA.
First, you need to have some advance time to think about this. Minimum is 6 months but a couple of years is better. I realize this is not possible for someone planning their first trip so you had better use a good travel agent.
You need to know the historical highs and lows over the past couple years for a given route. The lowest available fare goes up and down with season, demand, an airline's need for cash, etc. and there is no for sure way to know when the fares will go up or down except that holidays are almost always high.
When the current fare is near the historical low, buy. When it is high, wait. The cycle of low to high will vary from 1 to 6 months, but usually is in the 3 month range. Low fares will last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. That means if the fare just went down, you probably have less than 2 weeks to take advantage and once they go up, you'll have to wait 2-3 months before you see them fall again. It could be 1 month or it could be 6 months (as we saw this past summer) before the low fares reappear but I found 3 months to be the average cycle.
In my experience, you'll also see some patterns of low and high fares. For example, fares to the Dominican Republic usually bottom out around September and October and peak around December and March. May usually brings about another round of lows when the "Summer Sales" start to happen.
I've never found any benefit in buying more than 3 months in advance and if the fare has not bottomed out when your travel dates are 3 weeks away, it probably will not. Most of the lowest fares carry restrictions, including 21 day advance purchase, Saturday night stay, and a maximum stay of 30 days.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any site that tracks the history of the low fares available for a particular route, so you are stuck with tracking it yourself. You can use a fare tracking service such as travelocity.com or expedia.com, where they e-mail you the current fare along a particular route whenever the fare changes by a certain amount but I find this to be unreliable.
When I'm waiting to buy tickets, I check the fare every couple days. Essentially, all airlines will match the fares of one another and the only reason you see a difference in fares amongst carriers is because one will sometimes sell out all their low fare seats. Each airline allocates a limited amount of seats available at the lower fare.
One good way to find the recent low for a route is to ask right here on the board.
Don't try to use the distance traveled to determine the cost of a plane ticket. Supply, demand, and competition will often have more affect on the price, which is why you can sometimes fly Cleveland to London with a connection in Newark for a lower price than just flying from Cleveland to Newark. Carriers even lose money on some flights in order to maintain the offering of a route.
For those that are looking for a quick weekend trip, internet fares are sometimes offered that beat event the recent low fares, but they are heavily restricted. You usually have to depart on a Thursday or Friday and MUST come back the following Monday or Tuesday. In addition, the fares are only offered 1 week or less before the departure date.
Any other low fares available are hit and miss. I've never been able to get a consolidator for example, to get me a good price to the Dominican Republic, but I get good quotes to Rio and Cancun all the time. Another option is package deals, but they usually limit your choices by making you book a specific hotel as well.
One more option is to use a charter. The drawbacks are many in exchange for the low fares they often offer. There are often severe limits on departure dates (usually weekends), baggage (restricted carry-on and lower weight limits for checked bags), and routes (Punta Cana is common). If the carrier has a problem with equipment or crew, delays of 1 or more days are not uncommon as their backup resources are limited. Many have contracts with major carriers in these cases but it isn't like American Airlines, where alternate crews or aircraft can be implemented in hours or minutes.
Some travel agents do so much business with a particular carrier, they can manage a fare below the lowest published fare. My agent will not reveal exactly how that is done, but she does get me an additional 10% off in many cases.
Finally, if time is cheap to to you, creative routing such as through Canada can sometimes net you a great fare.
For those that are interested, I use Corrine Smith of Independence Travel to purchase all tickets. She is the best agent in all my years of air travel and almost always beats any internet quote. There is a US$10 service charge but worth every penny if you travel often and like things done just right. 216-447-9950, 216-447-0090/fax Don't waste her time for curiosity's sake. Use her if you are ready to buy when the fare is good. And of course, tell her Jim Hinsch recommended her. If you are a one or two times a year traveler, I don't think it matters much who you use.
I've posted this before, but I'll post it again for anybody that did not catch it the first time.
The best way to get a good air fare and applies mostly to people departing from the USA.
First, you need to have some advance time to think about this. Minimum is 6 months but a couple of years is better. I realize this is not possible for someone planning their first trip so you had better use a good travel agent.
You need to know the historical highs and lows over the past couple years for a given route. The lowest available fare goes up and down with season, demand, an airline's need for cash, etc. and there is no for sure way to know when the fares will go up or down except that holidays are almost always high.
When the current fare is near the historical low, buy. When it is high, wait. The cycle of low to high will vary from 1 to 6 months, but usually is in the 3 month range. Low fares will last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. That means if the fare just went down, you probably have less than 2 weeks to take advantage and once they go up, you'll have to wait 2-3 months before you see them fall again. It could be 1 month or it could be 6 months (as we saw this past summer) before the low fares reappear but I found 3 months to be the average cycle.
In my experience, you'll also see some patterns of low and high fares. For example, fares to the Dominican Republic usually bottom out around September and October and peak around December and March. May usually brings about another round of lows when the "Summer Sales" start to happen.
I've never found any benefit in buying more than 3 months in advance and if the fare has not bottomed out when your travel dates are 3 weeks away, it probably will not. Most of the lowest fares carry restrictions, including 21 day advance purchase, Saturday night stay, and a maximum stay of 30 days.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any site that tracks the history of the low fares available for a particular route, so you are stuck with tracking it yourself. You can use a fare tracking service such as travelocity.com or expedia.com, where they e-mail you the current fare along a particular route whenever the fare changes by a certain amount but I find this to be unreliable.
When I'm waiting to buy tickets, I check the fare every couple days. Essentially, all airlines will match the fares of one another and the only reason you see a difference in fares amongst carriers is because one will sometimes sell out all their low fare seats. Each airline allocates a limited amount of seats available at the lower fare.
One good way to find the recent low for a route is to ask right here on the board.
Don't try to use the distance traveled to determine the cost of a plane ticket. Supply, demand, and competition will often have more affect on the price, which is why you can sometimes fly Cleveland to London with a connection in Newark for a lower price than just flying from Cleveland to Newark. Carriers even lose money on some flights in order to maintain the offering of a route.
For those that are looking for a quick weekend trip, internet fares are sometimes offered that beat event the recent low fares, but they are heavily restricted. You usually have to depart on a Thursday or Friday and MUST come back the following Monday or Tuesday. In addition, the fares are only offered 1 week or less before the departure date.
Any other low fares available are hit and miss. I've never been able to get a consolidator for example, to get me a good price to the Dominican Republic, but I get good quotes to Rio and Cancun all the time. Another option is package deals, but they usually limit your choices by making you book a specific hotel as well.
One more option is to use a charter. The drawbacks are many in exchange for the low fares they often offer. There are often severe limits on departure dates (usually weekends), baggage (restricted carry-on and lower weight limits for checked bags), and routes (Punta Cana is common). If the carrier has a problem with equipment or crew, delays of 1 or more days are not uncommon as their backup resources are limited. Many have contracts with major carriers in these cases but it isn't like American Airlines, where alternate crews or aircraft can be implemented in hours or minutes.
Some travel agents do so much business with a particular carrier, they can manage a fare below the lowest published fare. My agent will not reveal exactly how that is done, but she does get me an additional 10% off in many cases.
Finally, if time is cheap to to you, creative routing such as through Canada can sometimes net you a great fare.
For those that are interested, I use Corrine Smith of Independence Travel to purchase all tickets. She is the best agent in all my years of air travel and almost always beats any internet quote. There is a US$10 service charge but worth every penny if you travel often and like things done just right. 216-447-9950, 216-447-0090/fax Don't waste her time for curiosity's sake. Use her if you are ready to buy when the fare is good. And of course, tell her Jim Hinsch recommended her. If you are a one or two times a year traveler, I don't think it matters much who you use.
AA
America Airlines has no competition in the DR as said before...I am a travel agent and from Nashville, TN the fares is going for 523US but we have a deal with AA for all of our clients and we can get them 100US off making the fare 423US. The best bet to get low fares is to ask for "L" class of service which requires a 14-21 day advance purchase. Also, many "L" classes of service require travel on certain days of the week. Usually, the next class of service is "S" which allows you to travel on the days of the week that "L" class does not cover so....if you meet a day restricion in "L" and the other in "S", AA has the capability of averaging the two fares (adding them together and dividing by 2)...sometimes, you have to ask AA to do this for you....you can save lots using this method as long as "L" and "S" are available...does that make sense, lol...you can check fares on our website and use an AA coupon which takes off $25US-$125US depending on the base fare amount at http://www.travelersadvantage.com AA Coupons also soon coming available to the company we purchased rescently, http://www.cheaptickets.com, good luck!
America Airlines has no competition in the DR as said before...I am a travel agent and from Nashville, TN the fares is going for 523US but we have a deal with AA for all of our clients and we can get them 100US off making the fare 423US. The best bet to get low fares is to ask for "L" class of service which requires a 14-21 day advance purchase. Also, many "L" classes of service require travel on certain days of the week. Usually, the next class of service is "S" which allows you to travel on the days of the week that "L" class does not cover so....if you meet a day restricion in "L" and the other in "S", AA has the capability of averaging the two fares (adding them together and dividing by 2)...sometimes, you have to ask AA to do this for you....you can save lots using this method as long as "L" and "S" are available...does that make sense, lol...you can check fares on our website and use an AA coupon which takes off $25US-$125US depending on the base fare amount at http://www.travelersadvantage.com AA Coupons also soon coming available to the company we purchased rescently, http://www.cheaptickets.com, good luck!
AA
Hola segun estoy mirando en nuestro sistema de reservas, hay una tarifa desde JFK New York a Santo Domingo con AA
de 249.00usd ida y vuelta ..esta tarifa es para 15 marzo.
fare basis is NX3C1A..espero Sabre este correcto con la data..
Ojala le pueada ayudar a alguien esta info.
(estaba tratando de ver sus restricciones pero mi sistema de reserva esta lento).
bye
sam
Hola segun estoy mirando en nuestro sistema de reservas, hay una tarifa desde JFK New York a Santo Domingo con AA
de 249.00usd ida y vuelta ..esta tarifa es para 15 marzo.
fare basis is NX3C1A..espero Sabre este correcto con la data..
Ojala le pueada ayudar a alguien esta info.
(estaba tratando de ver sus restricciones pero mi sistema de reserva esta lento).
bye
sam