Title. Why would it matter to the airline how long you’re waiting between the two flights on a roundtrip, even when you’re scheduling both flights well in advance?
In: Economics
Airlines are trying to guess what kind of traveler you are based on your itinerary. Someone traveling a long distance to stay for only a few days is probably attending some important event (e.g. a business meeting, wedding, or funeral). They can’t reschedule and would face consequences for missing it, so airlines know they can charge extra and not drive these customers away. Someone travelling a long distance but staying for a week or two is likely a tourist. This trip is optional, as are the specific of where and when they travel. They may opt not to go if the price is too high, so airlines offer them a better deal.
Logisitics of balancing out how many people they are taking to and from the country. If you fly out on a Monday and come back on the following Monday you are ticking off a seat on a return trip. Otherwise you’re creating a potentially empty seat on two flights for them.
What days of the week are you comparing ? Monday morning and Thursday and Friday afternoon are more expensive to capture the business travelers. The length of your stay probably doesn’t matter as much as the dates on your itinerary
I was going to call a little BS on this, but holy crap! I just checked nonstop flights from JFK to Heathrow that arrive in London between 10am and 9pm…
10/21-10/23 $1342+ [Mon-Wed]
10/21-10/30 $573+ [Mon-Wed]
10/28-10/30 $1280+ [Mon-Wed]
What about this:
10/21-10/23 $1342+ [Mon-Wed]
10/21-10/30 $573+ [Mon-Wed]
10/16-10/23 $573+ [Mon-Wed]
I could buy the latter two *roundtrip* tickets only use one leg from each and come out a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than the single 10/21-10/23 ticket!
Short trips are associated with business trips, traveling professionals, people who are way more worried about a convenient itinerary and less worried about the cost of the ticket that will just end up on the company’s budget.
So airlines try to take advantage of that prediction and charge short turn arounds more
The airlines do a ton of research into how to make the most money in airfares and fees for each flight; it’s not impossible that every single passenger on a flight paid a different price for their ticket.
Business travellers are characterized by being less flexible on travel dates and more flexible on price; pleasure travellers are characterized by being more flexible on dates and less flexible on price. Airlines want to attract both types of passengers to fill their planes, so they have a wide variety of pricing schemes.
The old algorithm was fairly simple, that the best fares required a Saturday night stay over (desirable for pleasure and undesirable for business travelers); these days the pricing has gotten much more sophisticated, and length of stay can be a big factor.
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Airlines know that business travelers stay shorter and spend more.
At the same time, they want to compete with leisure flyers.
That’s why you will see conditions like, “must stay over a Saturday night”, which business people rarely do, and vacationers regularly do.
They also know that most business trips are scheduled fairly close to travel dates, while vacations are often planned a good deal in advance.
So you get minimum stays and advance purchase restrictions on the cheapest fares.
We are kind of conditioned to feel empathy for the airlines, when in truth, “yield management” is trying to screw us out of every dime.
Booking fees, bag fees, seat assignment fees, change/cancel fees, boarding priority fees, carry-on fees, pet fees. If the airlines were ever our friends, they are no longer.
It indicates you are a business traveller instead of a vacationer.
If you are spending 20 hours in the air and 48 on the ground it means you are most likely doing it for business or for some reason that you NEED to be there for those dates. The airline then knows you are on the hook.
Airlines assume that if you’re buying a one-way or very short international flight, you’re probably traveling for business. Business travelers tend to not care as much about price, so they charge more. It’s also why last-minute tickets cost more, because those are usually business travelers or desperate individuals.
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