Not long ago we had to go out to Palm Springs for a night. We were concerned about the road conditions at the time so we briefly considered flying, but it was a last-minute thing. We don’t fly often–you can tell–so we didn’t give due consideration to what a hassle traveling by air has become. Not that we got that far anyway, for we found that the walk-up fare for a nonstop flight was over $1000.
A thousand dollars! I used to fly back and forth between LA or Burbank, and San Diego when I was at UCSD, and it’s just about the same distance. Granted that was thirty years ago, and the twelve bucks or so I paid then certainly doesn’t go as far now as it it did then. But without a doubt, $1000 at current general price levels is still worth many times as much as $12 was worth in 1978. So, what’s up with this? Do the airlines think anyone wants to fly that much? Who in their right mind would pay that kind of money for the trip? I’m fairly certain that you could hire a car and driver from a local limo service to drive you to PS, and drive back alone, for less than that.
The other odd thing was that most of the itineraries offered by Expedia were via San Francisco. There was even a two-stop, which IIRC requires you to change planes in Reno. Or maybe it was SLC. It seemed that the more stops there were, the lower the fares went.
Do the airlines really sell tickets for tihs? Or do they just post the fares, and once in a blue moon some unfortunate tourist actually pays them that kind of money for such a short trip?
Nobody would buy such a ticket, because nobody ever flies from Los Angeles to Palm Springs as a trip by itself. The ticket might be bought as part of a connection through LAX to somewhere more distant, in which case that leg of the trip would cost a lot less. The airlines don’t expect anyone to pay this much; they’re really saving the seat for someone who can pay $1000 for Palm Springs – LAX – somewhere in Asia, for example. But if someone wants to spent $1000 just to get to LAX, that’s fine with them.
How “last minute” was this? Often if you are booking last minute there will only be full economy fares left which can be 2 or 3 times the price of what you’d pay if you booked a month in advance.
Exactly. I’m often amazed at the price different between the “Ultra Cheap” flights between, say, Sydney and Brisbane and the “Full Price” flights, offered by the same airline. The crazy thing is that these are often for seats on the same plane, and there can be a $300 price difference!
I’m not sure about the celeb count in Palm Springs these days, but back when it was high I suspect lots of people flew that route, to avoid the drive. And a walk up fare, by definition, is not going to have the purpose of saving a seat, since all advance fare sales will be done. A few people flew in for a conference I went to there a few years ago, and they didn’t complain too much about the fares, all advanced purchase.
What I don’t know is how the fare setting algorithms handle walk up fares. Are they priced by distance, or only on the level of competition? How many airlines fly that route? (I drove, so I never even checked on airfare.) If they never sell any walkup tickets at a certain price, do they reduce it? Maybe this fare is set for the rich, so they actually sell some.
Right now, if I want to book a “last minute” fare from LAX to PSP, United has a nonstop flight leaving this evening for $675 with a Sunday return, or it’s $555 for a one-way on the same flight. Same departing flight with a return tomorrow is $868.
At the moment, any flights with connections are through Las Vegas. If you were getting flights through SFO, you may simply have had the bad luck of wanting a flight when the nonstops and semi-reasonable connecting cities were sold out.
On the other hand, if your dates are flexible, you can get a nonstop round trip for under $200, departing tomorrow and returning on the 13th.
If you really want a silly flight, it used to be possible to book a flight from San Francisco to Oakland. As these airports are so close to each other, an airplane would be calling for final approach almost as soon as it left the gate. In reality, the transportation was via bus, and the route existed primarily to rack up frequent-flyer miles cheaply. IIRC, the fare was something like $19, but gave you the minimum award of 1,000 miles to your account.
I think this also happens between Atlanta and Cincinnati (both large Delta hubs). It is much cheaper to fly to Dayton and drive down to Cincinnati, despite the Atlanta / Cincinnati flight actually being shorter at only 1.5 hours. I would guess that most people flying between the two cities are part of a longer string of flights.
Although people from Cincinnati complain that Delta has a lock on that airport so maybe that has something to do with it as well …
It’s also possible to fly from Rockhampton to Gladstone (and vice-versa), despite the fact the two cities are 100kms apart (on the same landmass, good roads, etc), and a one-way flight is $111.
Given that the flight takes 30 minutes, and you have to be at the airport 30 minutes ahead of departure time for check-in/screening, and when you arrive at the other city you have to collect your bags… It’s cheaper and faster to drive. At least then you’ve still got your car with you to get around. :smack:
Well, yeah. I don’t know why they even bother to sell extreme short-haul tickets anymore. Even slightly longer trips can be iffy, like between L.A. and S.F… Sure it takes 6 hours or more to drive, but you do have your car when you get there, and you may have to factor in a couple of hours in the security line at L.A. Returning home, the line at SFO was a lot faster, though.