the mysteries of air travel

[geekchick]

Today is Setting Orange, day 54 in the season of Confusion, 3271.

American wants to send me from Washington/Dulles to Denver...via LAX. For $680. Buh? Yeah, let me jump right on that one, especially with the 2-hour layover that wouldn't let me meet up with anyone in LA even if I went through there.

And why does a particular codeshare flight operated by Northwest cost $320 on Continental and $496 on Northwest itself? Same. Damn. Plane. Or how about a $324 vs. $402 United/US Air codeshare, or even better: $110 difference for a different codeshare flight?

Figuring out what variety of drugs these people are on is hard! Let's go shopping!

Comments

[fizzygeek.livejournal.com]

If you're trying to get to Denver from IAD, give Frontier a try.....we flew back from Las Vegas on Frontier a while back and connected thru Denver. Overall it was a pleasant experience and the price was pretty reasonable.

[geekchick]

I just bought a ticket on American for some reasonably small amount of cash and a less obnoxious departure time than 6:30 AM. I'll keep Frontier in mind for later though, thanks!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Shopping for air travel. One part of my former job I don't miss, and I seemed to be doing it a lot in my last couple of years there. Don't remember differences like that on codeshare flights back then, though. Sheesh.

[blivious.livejournal.com]

Fare classes are your enemy. Do you want the full, mega-air-travel geek explanation or wold you prefer to vent? =:)

[geekchick]

I was venting, but feel free to geek away! =)

[blivious.livejournal.com]

Basically, there's this thing called a fare class. Every plane has a certain number of seats assigned to each fare class (more than the number of seats in total, but that's a whole nuther thing). Ticket search engines try to find you the cheapest ticket they can, within fairly broad tolerances -- hence getting to DEN via LAX -- cheap seats were available on that itinerary, but not a more direct one. When there's a codeshare, the other airline gets an allotment of seats in a variety of fare classes. If the operating airline sells out the cheap seats, the codeshare partner may still have a cheaper fare class available -- hence being able to get a cheaper ticket via COA than NWA.

Similar things can happen if, for example, you book in an available fare class, but all the seats within that class are sold, while there are still seats on the plane. You can buy a ticket, but not be able to get a seat assignment. 99 times out of 100, you'll still get on the plane. Involuntary bumps are very rare.

See what you started! =:)

[geekchick]

See what you started!

That's me, troublemaker. =)