I’ve been trying to help some friends and family find flights from the UK to Orlando for next week to come to a family event. I’m amazed at how high the ticket prices have gone, but I’m even more amazed by just how ridiculous most airlines are.
I went to Virgin Atlantic’s site and clicked on “Last Minute Deals” to see what they had on offer. To me, a last minute deal should be an attempt by an airline to make money on a seat that would otherwise be going vacant. The flight is still going to take place after all, they are not going to cancel the whole thing because 10 or so seats are empty, so why not throw up a stonking good bargain in the hopes that you’ll recoup at least some of the cost. Here’s Virgin’s ‘last minute deal’ for a flight from London to Orlando leaving in two days time.
Seriously? $1900 dollars for a seat that would otherwise just be vacant, for a seat that without someone in it would just be a foot rest for someone with undoubtedly smelly feet? Come on! How on earth can Airlines expect to beat a recession with stuff like this going on.
As an aside, from what I’ve seen online, none of my friends or family will be able to make it here next week, which sucks!
Most people who are looking for a flight in two days’ time *need* to make that trip, and so will pay through the nose for the ticket. The major airlines have spent millions of dollars on operational research teams and software to maximise their revenues, and have the process of getting money out of their customers’ pockets down to a fine art!
Comment by Michael Davies — August 8, 2008 @ 3:37 am |
What Michael said. Another reason is that if they discount tickets for flights that take place in the next few days, this creates an incentive for people to book as late as possible. Which is the exact opposite of what the airlines want as it messes up their scheduling & cashflow. Airlines are actually the textbook example on market segmentation, i.e. how to extract the maximum amount that each customer is prepared to pay, and brag about their ability to sell each seat on a plane for a different price.
Comment by tlt — August 8, 2008 @ 9:22 am |
Hmm. I feel dumb now – I actually hadn’t thought about that, particularly the point about people holding on to book at the last minute all the time. Thanks
Still hate them though.
Comment by pwrighta — August 8, 2008 @ 9:52 am |
I was just talking to my mother on how ridiculous Air line tickets are. in order to get a nice price on tickets you will have to even join a program team or this company called YTB inorder to hack low cost on travel.
Comment by Oluv — August 10, 2008 @ 4:49 pm |
Michael, I agree with what you’re saying about research, however I’m of the school of thought that if they dropped prices 24 hours before a flight, they would attract another segment of people who are happy to holiday anywhere they can.
Personally I wouldn’t pay $2k per person to fly my family to Orlando, regardless of how much my kid wanted to go to Disney World. I could probably pay for us to be CARRIED for London to Euro Disney for that price!
Comment by owen — August 28, 2008 @ 8:59 am |