My wife wants to go visit her mother for her birthday in July. Simple trip. SC to NJ. It's only 450 miles. No big deal.
Apparently, the airline thinks we should buy the plane:
Cabin class. It's not even a direct flight.
Their business is down by 97%. We have just handed their industry a $50 BILLION bailout.
What a mess.
That has to be some sort of bug
In reply to Mr_Asa :
It's 2 medium/ smaller airports. I think it's their way if saying they don't want to fly anywhere other than the hubs.
That's a ticket that has cost us about $275 in the past.
Hahaha I'd ask them if that's what they are offering you to fly on their plane. Working at SeaTac on the new International Arrival Facility. You might see 3 planes taking off or landing in 8hrs. Kind of creepy how empty the airport is when walking threw it. Mainly the most planes you see are the freight and FedEx ,UPS DHL as they are coming and going all day.
I imagine it is because there are no flights operating on those routes because there is no demand right now. They aren't trying to price gouge anyway, they are saying if you want to make that trip, be prepared to charter your own plane.
I suspect all of the results are similar to the highlighted below:
Meanwhile, right now I can fly round trip to lax for $179 (Sprit) or $275 (American). I think the flights are cheaper than usual as long as there is enough demand on the route to get planes in the air.
LAX to Seattle is $23 roundtrip
We cancelled ur LAX to Egypt trip for thanksgiving. We had paid $1100 a person/roundtrip. Now its $450 a person/roundtrip.
ProDarwin said:I think the flights are cheaper than usual as long as there is enough demand on the route to get planes in the air.
Right.
If they are gonna fly, they want the plane full.
But they are not gonna fly to a medium sized airport unless you charter the plane.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:If they are gonna fly, they want the plane full.
Yep. Although I think 66% load factor might become the new full. Time will tell.
I'm out in Manitoba working this week, I flew from Toronto to Winnipeg on Sunday (of a long weekend here) with only 14 other people on a 737. That thing can really climb when it is empty! Tomorrow I fly home, hoping for an equally empty plane and airport. It was about $900 CAD round trip which is probably $300 above normal for that airline.
I did arrive at the airport a couple of hours early on Sunday as I thought my flight was leaving earlier than it was, I was the only passenger in Terminal 3 at Pearson for about an hour which was pretty strange.
I'd say those are more small not medium airports (for commercial flights). I can go Richmond or Charlottesville VA to Santa Barbara CA or West Palm Beach FL for less than $200 those same dates.
Drive to Charlotte and it's $124 for the flight to Trenton round trip that weekend direct.
No flights scheduled right now. Drive a little farther to a larger airport and the Price will drop.
This is the equivalent of a contractor high bidding a job they don't want. Put away your outrage flag.
Prices are insane right now. Atlanta to Chicago is 30% what it was pre covid. My wife wanted to go to to grand rapids. That was 300 pre covid. Now 800.
$10,000 seems like a fair price, for someone who wants to avoid any...Imperial entanglements.
Your problem is that these are tiny airports not served by the same commercial airlines, so you’re literally seeing options for charter flights or air taxis only.
Buy separately. But CAE to ATL, and ATL to TTN. A quick search using google flights shows that your round trip for those dates will be around $275.
CAE to ATL will be Delta, ATL to TTN is Frontier.
Oh, and delete all cookies on your browser before searching and buying the tickets.
lnlogauge said:Prices are insane right now. Atlanta to Chicago is near double what it was pre covid. My wife wanted to go to to grand rapids. That was 300 pre covid. Now 800.
It's always expensive to fly in / out of Grand Rapids. We will occasionally drive to down to Chicago for better rates.
Republic and envoy are going to start flying again soon. The feeder airlines are all but shut down.
I dunno. Google flight tracker tells me $475/person for round trip to Vegas in August, Vegas.com says $289/person for round trip flight AND hotel Monday to Saturday.
I started looking before crayola virus and was setting $700, still thinking about booking if the price hits $200. Since the virus I've seen as low as $250 and high as $600 for the same week at the same hotel.
I'm just annoyed they won't let me price for next summer yet.
A friend of mine was one of, if not the, first covid case in his area. Antibodies present and no virus. So he’s basically 0 risk in terms of transmitting or getting the virus. He’s also a huge traveler.
He has so far booked about 4 vacations, just because the flights were so incredibly cheap.
I think outrage is very much in order. This is a result of industry consolidation. Fewer airlines, fewer choices, more predatory pricing. Outrageous! 
Outrage brings change. Apathy promotes exploitation.
In reply to johndej :
Small vs medium...
Yes, they are fairly small, but they are large enough to land a jumbo jet. I fly private a lot, so I am pretty familiar with much smaller airports.
Doesn't change that they just bumped the price from $275 to $10,000.
Fueled by Caffeine said:
This is the equivalent of a contractor high bidding a job they don't want. Put away your outrage flag.
The construction industry has never received a $50 billion dollar bailout. I'm not sure any contractor has ever received a bailout at all.
I think it's time for a major restructuring of the airline industry. The construction industry is doing just fine, thank you.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to johndej :
Small vs medium...
Yes, they are fairly small, but they are large enough to land a jumbo jet. I fly private a lot, so I am pretty familiar with much smaller airports.
Doesn't change that they just bumped the price from $275 to $10,000.
They didn't bump the price, there are no $275 planes flying the route. The only option is the expensive plane. That's much different than charging you $10k to get on what was the $275 plane.
if a rental car place only has a Mercedes for $500 a day because they're out of $39 a day Elantras, they didn't raise the price from $39 to $500, they ran out of the $39 option. Check back later and they might have an Elantra.
What would you suggest?
No matter how you structure it, it doesn't make economic sense to offer those flights right now.
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