booking flights is still a pain in USA
I used to own a couple of businesses and I successfully managed several others in my life. Therefore, I understand that the ultimate objective of any company is to make money. When companies appear to do this in an intentionally scammy manor and force their customers into a situation that is a pain in the butt – I’m afraid I have to disagree with their business practices. It becomes a much more irritating situation when you have no choice but to not use their services because all of their competitors do the same irritating thing.
I was unaware of this before leaving the USA, but all the other places in the world (that I have lived and know people from) for the most part it is possible to buy one-way tickets and more often than not this ticket is at least close to the half the price of a round-trip ticket to the same destination. Not in the USA. I was disappointed to find out the past few months that our stupid system of one-way tickets costing much more than half a round is still in place. There were several instances on this trip where I looked and found if I booked a round-trip ticket and simply didn’t use the second half of it, it was actually cheaper than buying a one-way ticket.
There were several other instances where I discovered that people in certain markets are intentionally being taken advantage of. This was more often than not true for any destination ending in New York City. I found out by accident that it is actually cheaper for me to buy a ticket on the same plane that is going to NYC, but instead of saying I am getting off there to say that I am transitioning to…. I dunno (and it doesn’t matter) St. Louis or Washington D.C. and the flight ends up being cheaper. Huh? So if I need to spend 2 more hours on this SAME PLANE operated by the SAME COMPANY I pay less? WTF is going on here?
If you ever find yourself needing to go to NYC have a look at this system because I looked quite a bit and found that in most instances the longer journey was cheaper provided there was a stopover in NYC. Ludicrous.
USA has this one wrong. Over in South East Asia if I book a round trip ticket, it is precisely the cost of two one-way tickets. They also don’t take advantage of last-minute travelers nearly as much as they do in USA. I had forgotten that America was this way and waited until my trip to Virginia was less than 10 days away. I had previously noted that this flight was less than $200, however the priced jumped to more than $500 once we get closer to the date. This happens overseas as well but not to DOUBLE the price.
these a-holes charge $100 for a carry on bag
I dunno what to say here. I guess maybe some people are more organized than I tend to be. There is also nothing you can do about it because it seems that all of the airlines use the exact same system so there is no real competition on service – which is a shame. I am all for free markets but this is one of the flaws of that notion. When there are only a few players in the game and they all agree to “price fix” so to speak, there isn’t really a whole lot that the consumers can do (except in this instance they could take a bus, which at one point is exactly what I did.)
I'm about to start buying tickets for my next trip so I'm glad I read this article. I totally agree it is completely ridiculous. It feels like getting cheap tickets is some magical artform that some people are able to pull off. It's one of the only shopping experiences where I feel like this is the case.
i honestly believe that the beginning of the downfall began immediately after 9/11/2001. That date ruined lives and has continued to ruin life in general but specifically for travelers up through to now and will likely keep doing so. (of course even that was just one dominoe among so many going back that each generation can only count from when theirs began, but the previous generations just sadly laugh as they remind the young how it keeps going back).
Anyway, as far as the airline business in the U.S. goes that is the marker of decline. After the TSA began and dug its claws into the passengers and the airlines returned the favor to the customers by punishing them for even thinking of using their service, you get what we have here today. The sad part is no other travel form has stepped up its game to favor the individual. Trains had the chance to make a diffference like they do in every leading country (Japan, here’s looking at you) but they too didn’t bother. At this point i think it would be easy for a fucking Zepplin service to startup and treat customers right with a good price and they’d come out ahead.
trains in the US would be fantastic. The main problems are that they are unrealistically expensive and extremely slow for most of the routes. Someone once told me that the US has the most extensive rail system of any country in the world, yet very little of it is used for passengers.
Completely agree
Very bad management
I boarded a flight from Hertford to SFO at 0630hrs which was just over 6 hrs flight.
They didn’t have anything for breakfast apart from menu card. I thought this is very stupid not serving the breakfast. Forget free breakfast, there was nothing to buy.
What were they hoping? Starving people to death
yeah that is pretty irresponsible of them. was that Connecticut to sanfran?
Yes bradley intl, connecticut
This is a serious problem now a days, a bit of luxury is costing a lot. which is seriously insane, there should be bit a easy way through out pockets.
Anyways, keep up with such a good content.
airline consolidation has screwed over the consumer, more monopolies for the rich in our crony capitalism ... usa has some of the worlds most shit airlines
Lol, that's why i travel by trains. A bit late.... But verry pocket-friendly! 😸
Posted using Partiko Android
"if I booked a round-trip ticket and simply didn’t use the second half of it, it was actually cheaper than buying a one-way ticket."
Say what?
This reminds of the train tickets here in the Netherlands. A return ticket was a lot cheaper than 2 one way tickets. A couple of years ago they fixed this problem. But in a sneaky way, they raised all prices.
well a return ticket should be cheaper than 2 one way tickets but in my situation a return ticket was cheaper than 1 one-way ticket.
Its all supply and demand. I always tell my customers to book as soon as they know they are traveling. 6-7 months in advance is what I tell them and that is what I follow as well. The different airlines have classes, once that class is all booked they go to the next class etc. The person sitting next to you will most probably have paid a different price. The prices also change from hour to hour. I once book a flight for someone where the usual price is 1500.00 One morning while checking for that person, that flight went down to 750.00. within 2 hours it had gone back up again.
You can actually go crazy waiting for prices to down. So I say to you book ASAP and don't keep checking. And don't necessarily book the cheapest fare, Then you find out when you get there you have to pay for luggage food etc.
i honestly believe that the beginning of the downfall began immediately after 9/11/2001. That date ruined lives and has continued to ruin life in general but specifically for travelers up through to now and will likely keep doing so. (of course even that was just one dominoe among so many going back that each generation can only count from when theirs began, but the previous generations just sadly laugh as they remind the young how it keeps going back).
Anyway, as far as the airline business in the U.S. goes that is the marker of decline. After the TSA began and dug its claws into the passengers and the airlines returned the favor to the customers by punishing them for even thinking of using their service, you get what we have here today. The sad part is no other travel form has stepped up its game to favor the individual. Trains had the chance to make a diffference like they do in every leading country (Japan, here’s looking at you) but they too didn’t bother. At this point i think it would be easy for a fucking Zepplin service to startup and treat customers right with a good price and they’d come out ahead.
i honestly believe that the beginning of the downfall began immediately after 9/11/2001. That date ruined lives and has continued to ruin life in general but specifically for travelers up through to now and will likely keep doing so. (of course even that was just one dominoe among so many going back that each generation can only count from when theirs began, but the previous generations just sadly laugh as they remind the young how it keeps going back).
Anyway, as far as the airline business in the U.S. goes that is the marker of decline. After the TSA began and dug its claws into the passengers and the airlines returned the favor to the customers by punishing them for even thinking of using their service, you get what we have here today. The sad part is no other travel form has stepped up its game to favor the individual. Trains had the chance to make a diffference like they do in every leading country (Japan, here’s looking at you) but they too didn’t bother. At this point i think it would be easy for a fucking Zepplin service to startup and treat customers right with a good price and they’d come out ahead.
something happen there? this got posted 3 times... haha