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The grocery stores are agglomerating as well. Not to mention the airlines, and I just paid a month's rent to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, which I was for
by calinet6 11y ago
The grocery stores are agglomerating as well.
Not to mention the airlines, and I just paid a month's rent to visit my parents for Thanksgiving, which I was forced to do because, you know, grandparents have an expiration date, and Thanksgiving is practically a holy day in our family.
I'm tired of it. Monopolies are real, and they tend to be bad for the people they purport to serve. But this is a power feedback loop that has tipped over the edge and probably gotten past control. Where are our checks and balances?
- cglace 11y agoAirline prices aren't exactly going through the roof. http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/airfares/programs/economics_and_finance/air_travel_price_index/html/AnnualFares.html http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/airfares/programs/economics_and_... To add to this point. My wife just got a ticket from Atlanta to Indianapolis for 49 dollars round trip. . . You can't drive from Atlanta to Indy for 49 dollars.
- dswalter 11y agoAtlanta's a major air travel hub, so extra-cheap flights are partially a result of that. If the poster above you has parents that are off the beaten path, it's very likely those $49 deals don't exist for the flight she or he needs.
- cglace 11y agoAtlanta is a hub for many airlines. However, this was Southwest which uses point to point and not hub and spoke.
- calinet6 11y agoI'm talking American to Charlotte, a huge US Airways hub. US Airways was just acquired by American making it the world's largest airline. It's simply demand in the holiday case, but it's still ridiculous. At other times, high demand does not necessary apply and they do all kinds of things to generate demand and compete for butts in seats, especially when fuel prices are low. But with a high-demand holiday, at a hub almost entirely monopolized by one airline, there is no ceiling to how high they can raise price in response to that demand.
- greg5green 11y agoWeird thought -- did you look into flying to GSO? It's ABSURD, but last time I looked, flights from GSO and RDU through CLT were way less than from CLT itself.
- calinet6 11y agoI've tried several flight hacks to get there, but they actually live in Charlotte so I'd have to bail on the second leg, which means booking two legs separately and still taking a chance on getting the return one-way cancelled on me for skirting the rules. It's maybe $100 cheaper, not big enough a difference to really make it worth it.
- stevesearer 11y agoNot to just talk about low fares, but I was amazed recently with a $38 fare from Los Angeles to Chicago. Was with Frontier so there are other fees involved, but still pretty awesome. Norwegian has incredible fares also, many I've seen for less than $400 round trip Los Angeles to various destinations in Scandinavia.
- skhatri11 11y agoCompetition is important here, but I think low oil prices are driving customer savings.
- buzzdenver 11y agoDepends on the route. Transatlantic flights cost more this past summer than when the oil was > $100/barrel.
- philwelch 11y agoSounds like high demand driven by the slumping Euro.
- buzzdenver 11y agoNo way. The tickets were more expensive in Euros too. It's simply a fixed supply of seat demanded by more people than a year ago.
- philwelch 11y agoYeah, more people traveling from US to Europe because the cost of a European vacation has gone down in USD due to the slumping EUR.
- bradleyjg 11y agoAlso note the recent beer giant announcement, that will see the new company own all or part of 15 of the top 20 beers in the US.
- manachar 11y agoThat's AB InBev and SABMiller. Rumor is if it goes through many of the American brands in SABMiller will be spun off as this is more a purchase for the global presence of SABMiller.
- SeoxyS 11y agoThat's just economics. Demand in the US for thanksgiving travel goes through the roof. Airlines don't magically have more planes to fly during the holiday (i.e. supply is fixed). The result: prices adjust upwards and force more people to spread out travel over different dates, find alternative arrangements, or forgo travel.
- xasos 11y agoFlights actually cost that much - most airlines don't make much money on the flight itself [0]. A flight with an airline like Spirit or Frontier charge the bare minimum for flights without any extra frills. [0] http://freakonomics.com/2011/06/24/why-do-airlines-always-lose-money-hint-its-not-due-to-taxes-or-fuel-costs/ http://freakonomics.com/2011/06/24/why-do-airlines-always-lo...