Why is the price of a flight ticket with American Airlines dependent on how long I stay in the US?
Mr Innocent asked:
We have just realized that we can buy a cheaper flight ticket from Sweden to Chicago with American if we stay there no longer than 30 days.
We have just realized that we can buy a cheaper flight ticket from Sweden to Chicago with American if we stay there no longer than 30 days.
It is impossible for us to understand why it is that way. Does anyone know?
MALCOLM
February 18th, 2010 at 8:11 am
BRAIN
How long in advance are you buying your tiickets? If you’re buying them a month or two ahead I don’t have an answer for you, but if you’re buying them 4 months or so in advance, having a return farther out is generally more expensive since you’re buying so far in advance. Buying a ticket 3 months in advance is cheaper than buying a ticket 7 months in advance.
If you go through sites like orbitz or travelocity you can sometimes get 2 one way tickets for the price of a round trip ticket, so you could buy one now, and wait a little bit to buy the other.
February 21st, 2010 at 6:58 am
SHAUN
I have no idea. I have found that flight prices change depending on the day you leave and return.
I could venture a guess. I would guess that the reason is the chance of a guarantee of the price of fuel. I’m only guessing, but I’d say that the airlines have a rough but relatively accurate estimate of what the price of fuel will be, and how much it will cost to fly with a full cabin to Sweden and back. So they probably base their round trip airline ticket price on this estimate.
However, I’d also guess that 30 days is the cut off mark where they draw the line and say that the price estimate is not accurate enough to hope to gain a profit from the tickets purchased today. So because they’ve determined that they are not as accurate in their estimate of fuel cost after 30 days, they hike up the price, one, to discourage people from buying round trip tickets more then 30 days apart, and two, to better guarantee themselves the profit on the cost of fuel.
I guess this because could you imagine several thousands of people buying round trip tickets for regular price, and then the airline only receives a profit for half it’s flights for those thousands of people because by the time they returned fuel cost had risen over the profit margin for the ticket they bought. Of course that doesn’t explain why airlines are cheaper when you buy months in advance.
I don’t know if I’m right, but it’s a guess nonetheless.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:38 pm
GARY
You sure it’s not the cost of busy vs low season? I know Nov – Jan my tickets are almost double then what it cost me to fly in May/june.
I usually take flights from europe to US and middle east to US.. 4 times a year and its clock work on the prices.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
IRA
UK reply
Could be your earlier period is more popular (school holidays for example) than later time?
Just booked tickets for May, Birmingham to Glasgow on the day Flybe released their summer schedule.
10:40 plane is free – just pay taxes charges.
6:40 flight is 164 Pounds plus taxes/charges – work that one out!
15:00 flight was also free plus taxes!
Great for us – expensive for some!
February 25th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
TERRELL
It’s probably the same reason as requiring a Saturday night stayover to qualify for the low excursion fare. The low fares are intended for leisure travellers who normally stay over at least one weekend but for less than a month.