Air Fare Wars

Key points

1. Airlines put up just enough "cheap" tickets to get you into going-on-holiday thinking.
   
2. They depend on you checking prices first (to see if the fare war stories are true) -- committing to the holiday next -- and leaving actual ticket purchases until major portions of the holiday are confirmed.
   
3. By then it is "too late" for you to back down. Everything else is arranged. You bite the bullet and pay for the expensive tickets which, now, are all that are available.
   
4. Sucker!
   

Long-winded logic

A few of us were discussing air fares. In particular, the recent news that airlines were offering huge discounts on air fares because people were not flying. The global economic crisis and all that.

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We only had two examples of the "air fare war". On that limited evidence -- there is no air fare war.

Is the public being conned? Yes.

The limited evidence

1. One person had seen some cheap seats to Brisbane. He suggested that family members could all fly to Brisbane. Going back to the airline the next day -- the cheap fares were gone.
   
2. In March, I bought tickets to Dublin. A week after the "air fare war" was declared, I checked current prices. The cheapest ticket now costs more -- $600 each more -- than it did in March. Oh, and the flight goes the long way -- an extra eight hours longer.

So what happened to the "air fare war"? Here's my guess:

There was one cheap ticket for sale. Possibly two. Few enough that they disappeared very quickly. (Bought by the airline boss, perhaps.) But there were just enough cheap tickets on sale that they lasted for, perhaps, 24 hours.

What then?

The cheap tickets are gone -- or withdrawn -- but only after enough people have seen that they exist. Perhaps there were just enough cheap tickets to show the gullible journalists and travel writers? People who did not check the earlier ticket prices read the news of an "air fare war"; think, okay, it looks expensive but it must be cheaper than it was... and buy tickets at the usual -- or higher -- prices.

The real catch

Surely, plenty of people know that the available tickets are not really cheap... So what? How do people plan a holiday:

1. Check air fares
   
2. Talk to friends, family, relatives to be visited... that is, build an expectation that the holiday will happen
   
3. Make sure that holiday accommodation is available, add up all the costs, decide that a holiday is feasible, then...
   
4. Go back to the airline website... find that the "cheap" tickets have disappeared... but...
   
5. Decide that all the preparations have been made -- that holiday expectations have been raised -- friends and relatives are eagerly awaiting your visit -- so you may as well go anyway...

You were committed to the holiday because of the cheap air fares. Those fares are no longer available -- but you are committed -- so you accept the inevitable and pay more.

Sucker!

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