The many different prices of a flight

Posted by Seth on November 20, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports | 11 Comments to Read

I like to think that I have a pretty solid grasp of how revenue and inventory management work together within the airlines to control the price of a flight. I understand fare rules, inventory allocations and routing rules and I can generally figure out what’s going on. Heck, I’ve even built tools that help find the information and distill it to simple numbers. So I was incredibly surprised this weekend when I went to purchase a few "local" flights for our New Years trip to South Asia. Needless to say, the numbers were not playing nice.

I got an award flight into India using my OnePass miles from Continental and a revenue ticket on the return from Colombo, Sri Lanka on a combination of Emirates and British Airways. That part was relatively easy, though I did run into some issues booking one of the return options (now since discarded) via EgyptAir from Bangkok. But that was nothing compared to the crazy I experienced trying to buy the domestic flights in India and the short hop from Chennai to Colombo.

Here’s a screen shot from the ITA pricing engine for one of the flights we wanted:

Pretty simple, really. Based on that we should have been able to get the flight for about $200 without much trouble, right? So I started checking around a few different booking engines. Thanks to the various referral link/rebate options for flight bookings I was checking three different engines, Expedia, Vayama and CheapoAir (n.b. – those links earn me that rebate if you use them). The rebates offered vary so there is some flexibility in figuring out which is best deal but, all else being equal, I should be able to get the published fare from each, right??

Not at all.

For that flight which nominally cost $200 the options I got were $257 or $247 from Vayama and CheapoAir, respectively:

Exact same flight, date, time and fare bucket, but a price that was 25% higher. Zoinks! Fortunately Expedia was able to book the flight at the "correct" price for that one.

For the flight from Chennai to Cochin a few days earlier, however, CheapoAir was about $50 less than Expedia and actually ended up being less than the published price in ITA thanks to a coupon that they had published, a coupon that didn’t work on the above itinerary.

Similarly, for the flight to Colombo the ITA price seemed decent enough, with flights at the right time for what we wanted:

Once again, Vayama was terribly over-priced, even including the click-through rebate earnt:

And Expedia was still showing the published ITA rate:

But don’t forget to check the operating carrier, too. A quick visit to the SriLankan website pulled up this price:

That converts to USD $213 at the current exchange rates, a full $80 less than the fare published in ITA and a whopping $140 less than what Vayama wanted for the exact same rate.

So, is there a moral to the story? Maybe it is this: Airfare pricing is horribly inconsistent and near impossible for mere mortals to effectively and easily compare. It also further enforces my fears of how much worse it could get if the airlines continue to pull information out of the GDSes and move towards their direct sales model. In this case the direct model ended up saving me a few bucks, but only after quite a bit of digging to find the best price.

It really shouldn’t be this hard.

Related Posts:

• Buying a ticket shouldn’t be this hard
• Amadeus and United extend partnership – with a twist
• Is air travel a commodity or not?
• Let’s talk airfare and distribution

The debacle that is Avios, and a few gems it offers

Posted by Seth on November 18, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 9 Comments to Read

When British Airways and Iberia announced a couple months back that they were integrating their loyalty programs under the Avios moniker there were a whole bunch of folks (mostly based in the USA) who were pretty upset at the potential issues it could raise. At that time I took a somewhat measured approach, suggesting that there are a few areas in which folks might see benefits, mostly for those in the UK or Europe. Now that the details are out and we can look at the numbers I’m still not certain, but the program mostly seems to be a debacle unless you live in the UK or Spain and only fly on simple trips.

You didn’t want to connect, did you?

The single-partner award chart isn’t nearly as bad as previously expected, with a catch. Awards on a single partner now do not permit connections. If you require a connection for your itinerary then you redeem an award for each flight. That means JFK-EZE on AA would be one price (25K one way in coach) but connecting via Miami would add 7,500 to that total; connecting via Dallas is 10,000 more. So if you can position yourself to get to a hub gateway (or if you are lucky enough to actually live in one) then the numbers can be quite reasonable still. I queried ~150 city pairs on routes operated by wide-body aircraft by Cathay Pacific, Qantas and LAN and found a few routes where the numbers aren’t completely awful. But that assumes you’re at the gateway and want to go to the hub. A pretty significant catch to be sure.

Also on the connection front, it appears that folks based in Europe are going to feel the pinch of award prices rising. A trip from Istanbul to Paris sees a 4,500 point surcharge over a trip from Istanbul to London. Not all that surprising considering the rate on London-Paris is 4,500. In other words, even if you stay on BA metal for the journey you get hit with a connection penalty. This applies to flights originating in the USA as well, and the up-charge might be even more than you’d expect (ORD-LHR is 20,000; ORD-CDG is 25,000 while MIA-LHR and MIA-CDG are both 25,000). In other words, the award charts are very inconsistent and nearly impossible to decipher with any reasonable sense of reason.

Multi-partner Awards

The multi-partner award chart is unchanged and is shown below. With this scheme you are permitted up to 8 segments on an award, including an open jaw stopovers so long as the stopover is on the direct point of travel. That basically means only at hubs, which is also not particularly great, but also not atypical.

Some "gems"

So, what are these "gems" I referenced in the thread title? There are a couple to talk about.

If you’re looking for flights operated by international configured aircraft and hoping for a bargain there are a few routes that come up as quite reasonably priced. Some have gone down from the prior charts, though, again, no connections are permitted any more so there’s that problem. Still, take a look at some of these routes with the decent redemption pricing (o/w, economy):

Comparing those numbers to other carriers I’ve compiled data on suggests that the program isn’t a complete fiasco, so long as you can avoid that pesky connection problem.

Also, it is possible to redeem 10% of the regular Avios award price for an infant in lap which is a nice feature and most certainly not one that most programs offer. But that’s a pretty small consolation.

Upgrade or downgrade?

In the end, I believe that the overall changes to the program are quite negative for most customers. Yes, there are a few bright spots where award costs have gone down and those should be celebrated, but for most customers the connection penalty will be a rather steep price to pay to make the Avios retain value. That said, if you live in a hub or in a spoke with good frequencies there is the slight chance that the program can be made to work for you.

I’m quite happy that I’m not sitting on a pile of Avios right now, even being in NYC where I have the advantage of many non-stop options. If it comes to that I’ll just move some Membership Rewards points over and leverage the program that way.

Check out some other views on the changes from these noted loyalty bloggers:

• Lucky’s posts
• Avios points not pricing correctly – One Mile at a Time
• British Airways clarifies some Avios changes – One Mile at a Time
• TPG’s thoughts:
• British Airways Avios Program Worse Than I Expected

Related Posts:

• Updates to the British Airways program coming soon

Broader fuel surcharges coming to Aeroplan

Posted by Seth on November 9, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | Read the First Comment

Following on the heels of this summer’s award chart adjustments that saw many awards increase in cost it appears that Aeroplan, the loyalty program associated with Air Canada, is also adjusting the surcharges they levy on certain award redemptions. Specifically, it appears that the YQ fuel surcharge, to date only levied against redemptions on Air Canada flights, is now applying to flights operated by Lufthansa, Austrian and a few others.

This trend is not a new one. Recently American Airlines began charging the YQ surcharge on flights operated by partner British Airways. Delta charges a similar fee for flights originating outside the USA, even if flown on Delta airplanes, while not charging where the flights originate in the USA. Needless to say, the development is a costly one for customers.

With Aeroplan as one of the last great redemption options for the American Express Membership Rewards program this move also devalues those points a bit. Not great news at any level.

More over at View From the Wing.

Big bonuses for flights to London (so long as you’re a big spender)

Posted by Seth on October 9, 2011 under frequent flyer, points | Read the First Comment

The three largest US airlines have apparently decided to have some fun with bonus frequent flier points and London this fall. It is not particularly clear what started the push, but American Airlines was first out of the gates with their promotion: 25K bonus points for the first flight, 35K for the second and 45K for the third between the USA and anywhere in Europe. Each subsequent flight will continue to earn at the 45K level. British Airways has a similar deal out there as well.

The catch here is that the tickets must be booked in a full fare class. So paid premium cabin tickets as well as Y, B and H fares in coach are the qualifying fares. Generally not a tremendous value, though there are some discounted business class seats available around Thanksgiving that could make this a worthwhile deal.

United Airlines was next on the list, with bonuses of 25K, 35K, 45K and 45K available for flights on either Continental or United metal but only to London. The United offer is slightly less attractive in that they are only offering the bonus for premium cabin flights; full-fare economy gets you no bonus.

Delta was on board just a couple days later, matching the United promotion. They, too, have limited the deal to only London and only on premium cabin fares.

No idea why London has become the target of the big bonus miles, but if you’re going anyways and you’ve got those high fares you may as well take the bonus points. Registration is required for each program’s bonuses.

UPDATE: If you’re looking to cash in on this deal without dropping a lot of cash check out the sales to London on right now from most of the carriers for later this fall. There are some bargains to be had (~$1400 r/t) if you can make the dates work!.

Updates to the British Airways program coming soon

Posted by Seth on September 2, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 17 Comments to Read

British Airways has announced a number of changes to their loyalty scheme this week. While some of the reactions have been overwhelmingly negative, I see things slightly differently. Yes, there are some changes that will devalue the points for some members. But there are other changes that are surprisingly positive. Going forward, the program is skewing heavily in favor of members residing in the UK or Europe at the expense of members pretty much everywhere else.

So what are the big changes?

For starters, the points now have a new name: Avios. Not points, not miles, but Avios. Yeah, that’s stupid, but in the grand scheme of things doesn’t really matter.

More significantly, the single partner award chart is going away. This chart represents the most valuable awards for folks outside of the UK and Europe so it is understandable that it will be a tremendous downgrade for those customers. In many cases it appears that award costs are increasing by 2-3x assuming they keep the existing for BA/multi-partner awards. That hurts. I’ve previously suggested that the single partner awards between North and South America or North America and SE Asia are a great deal, particularly with the lack of YQ fuel surcharges on those carriers. Seeing that award increase from 80K in business class to 180K sucks pretty badly.

So that’s the bad news. But what about the good news? If you live in the UK and outside of London there is one rather significant benefit coming. Onward flights between London and the Regional airports will no longer carry a surcharge for redemptions. That’s a rather nice bit of relief for those members.

Additionally, if you are traveling within Europe the fees for redemptions are mostly going down. With the variety of taxes and fuel surcharges the airlines charge in Europe it is not uncommon for award prices to be comparable to revenue ticker prices. The new scheme will fix those costs at £27 for a return trip. That’s a pretty good deal.

Also, with the exception of Tel Aviv, most destinations in the Europe/Mediterranean region are staying level or decreasing in redemption costs. Again, a move that is heavily favored towards the folks in Europe, but it is a positive change.

Finally, there are some other bits like points expiry extending to 36 months after the last activity rather than 24 months as currently.

Overall, the impact of these changes would seem to depend on where you’re living. If you live in the United States and are sitting on a large stash of BA points, now is a pretty good time to look at unloading them, Maybe the Brits have finally decided to get their payback for that little Revolutionary War thing.

Related Posts:

• A great time to transfer AmEx Membership Rewards to British Airways

A great time to transfer AmEx Membership Rewards to British Airways

Posted by Seth on June 2, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points | 3 Comments to Read

The next two months are going to be a fantastic time for folks holding American Express Membership Rewards points and looking for travel awards through the British Airways Executive Club loyalty program. From now through July 31, 2011 transfers are earning a 50% bonus, meaning 1,000 MR points are now worth 1,500 BA points rather than the typical 1,000 rate. This transfer bonus is one of the best offered out of the Membership Rewards program in quite some time.

Is it a coincidence that this promotion came out mere hours after a news article and follow-on social media blitz panning the British Airways program for adding fuel surcharges to their award flights? Maybe so. But that’s fine by me. I’ll take the bonus any way I can get it, especially because I don’t plan on paying those extra fees anyways.

It was great to read the rants and vitriol spewed against BA and other carriers charging similar fees, if for no other reason than it didn’t reflect the whole story. Sure, there are times where those fees are going to apply and they suck when it happens. But there are still a number of times where they do not apply and that’s where the value proposition is of the programs.

Redeeming British Airways points on LAN attracts no YQ surcharge, for example. And if you can find the award seats a ticket from North America to Easter Island, with a stopover in Chile, all in business class can be had for a quite reasonable 80,000 points for the return trip. And with this latest bonus that’s only 54,000 points! Even better is that the award inventory seems to be pretty decent, at least for the days I’m looking to go around New Years.

Time to make a transfer and some bookings!

Related Posts:

• American Express steps up travel benefits for Platinum card
• American Express goes British for the holidays
• Fuel surcharges rolling back

South African Airways extorts additional fare at departure

Posted by Seth on February 21, 2011 under Trip Reports | 11 Comments to Read

Last week I took a quick jaunt over to South Africa and Mauritius. The trip overall was great and I’ll be sharing plenty from it in the coming days, but there is one part that I’m still struggling to comprehend: On the day of departure I was told by South African Airways (“SAA”) that I was on the hook for hundreds of dollars in additional costs in order to make my trip.

The problem stemmed from a schedule change that SAA instituted. Schedule changes happen; I get that. The amazing thing to me in this case was that the airline chose to disavow all responsibility for accommodations when they made the change. If I wanted to travel I was on the hook for all costs associated with their change. This was apparently non-negotiable.

I was notified of the change only 4 days prior to departure. Two of those days were the weekend when apparently no changes could be made to the ticket because their support group was closed. By the time that desk opened up and I was able to get through we were basically inside 24 hours to departure so changes could only be handled at the airport. Knowing that it would be a mess I got to the airport early – 5 hours early – to deal with an agent and try to resolve the issue.

Their first offer was that we could fly standby on an earlier flight out the same departure day. We wouldn’t know if it had cleared (“Oh, just call back to the USA and check up on it”) and it would involve leaving 7 hours earlier than planned. Losing the only day I was to spend in Mauritius was not particularly appealing and the fact that it was standby made that option unacceptable.

Or we could take the original (now hour later) booked flight and spend the night in Johannesburg before continuing home, arriving 24 hours later. The costs for the additional time spent in Jo’burg would be solely mine; they would not assist with hotel costs at all. Despite the change being of their doing.

I suggested alternate routings, mostly on SAA and also using Star Alliance partners. Absolutely impossible was their reply as I would be changing the routing on the trip. Never mind that the change was required by their scheduling.

Ultimately their offer was that they would sell me a seat on a British Airways/Comair flight from Mauritius to Jo’burg that just happened to be at the same time as the SAA flight was originally booked. For just $305 I could actually keep my original itinerary. It was borderline extortion at the airport and I had no problem claiming that to them. Sadly, however, we were now 2+ hours into the discussion and it was time to get checked in and start the trip. I paid the $305, collected my re-issued ticket and began the journey.

Once I made the extortion on Twitter I managed to rouse some other folks in their customer service group. This started a string of emails that appeared to hold promise. That appearance was apparently a mirage as nothing positive came from the conversations. Some choice comments from their position include:

Understandably, our industry’s revenue environment has permanently changed, and we must operate our airline accordingly…. Please know I will be sharing your feedback with our Network Planning and Analysis leadership teams for their future consideration and internal review.

OK…so you’ll file a paper on it and in the meantime I’m still out $305. Thanks for nothing. The emails continued a few more times and the only assurances I received were that they really cared about me as a customer and that they “treat any report of customer dissatisfaction very seriously.” Apparently not seriously enough to actually make the customer whole, however.

There were a few more emails and I’m glad that they took the time to respond. I would have been much more impressed, however, had they acknowledged that they were actually at fault rather than leaving me on the hook for hundreds of dollars in costs.

The in-flight service was top-notch and I would have no qualms about recommending SAA in that regard. But the ground handling was abysmal and the nasty surprise of being charged $305 extra at the airport for a ticket that was previously fully paid and confirmed was unconscionable. Such a surprise on the day of travel is not the way customers should be treated.

It is going to take a lot to convince me to try SAA again. Sad, because the product really is quite pleasant.

UPDATE (4 April 2011): Well, SAA finally realized the error of their ways. I got my money back!

A quick look back at 2010

Posted by Seth on January 3, 2011 under Trip Reports | Read the First Comment

It is now the new year, with new goals and new milestones on the horizon. But not too late to take a quick look back at 2010 and the travel milestones I hit during the year. Not surprisingly, the more I travel the harder it is to reach new and different accomplishments. Indeed, 2010 had many fewer than 2009, though in a couple categories it surpassed the previous year.

Perhaps the most significant numbers of the year are the total amount of time in the air:

• 151 segments
• 208378 miles
• 18 days 13:31

Those numbers are “butt-in-seat” and based on the distances between the starting and ending airport as calculated on www.openflights.org. They do not include 500 mile minimums or the like. In most cases the durations are based on wheels up to wheels down as tracked by the appropriate authorities, not the block time of the flight or estimates. The 208K miles is the most ever for me in a calendar year as is the 151 segments.

Of the 151 segments flown, more than half (86, to be precise) were routes I had not flown previously. It is certainly becoming more and more difficult to find new ways to get to different places but I continue to try. New lines and new dots are still of value to me and I’m finding that I’m paying a bit more to get them.

I also passed through 77 airports during the year located in 18 different countries. I actually Immigrated 31 different times, including the various times I returned to the United States. On four of my trips there were multiple foreign countries involved.

I visited 15 distinct countries, plus the USA. Eight of those countries (St. Maarten, Sint Martin, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Togo, Guyana, Morocco and Tunisia) were new to me. Two of the crossings (into Togo and back into Ghana were on foot while the Sint Martin/St. Maarten crossing were by car; The others were all by plane. I also added a new state visited – Idaho – to my list even though I drove over from Spokane to get there rather than flying in.

My travels included flying on 24 different airlines (possibly a few more if regional/express carriers are included by I’m not great at tracking those). Of those 24, 13 were airlines I had not previously flown on (AC, AT, BA, BD, BE, HA, LC, RW, SN, TGY, VS, YV & YX). Again, it is getting much harder to find new ones at reasonable prices but I’m doing my best, including a couple booked for the early part of 2011.

None of my milestones north, south, east or west were new extremes for me this year. Nor was my longest flight (SYD-SFO) longer than previous records. I did get a new shortest flight for my list, one that will almost certainly never be broken.

Somewhat amazingly, of the 151 flights I only had three instances where I was struck by operations so irregular that they caused a missed flight. One of them – during my JetBlue AYCJ adventures wasn’t a big deal and I got back on track without really missing anything along the way. Two others – a US Airways delay out of Belgium and a Royal Air Maroc fiasco in Casablanca – caused me to overnight unexpectedly. The US Air incident wasn’t so bad but the Air Maroc one was pretty awful.

Finally, I managed to pick up five new aircraft types during the year. My favorite was probably the smallest, the Cessna 208 Caravan I, though the Saab SF340 was fun, too, and the Embraer 175LR was the best ride of them all.

And I got robbed once where the guy took money directly from my hands and probably a couple more times due to bad negotiating skills in markets. At least I robbed the guy who physically took the cash out of my hand back.

And while I sit on the airplane now, enjoying a flight from Lufthansa into Frankfurt and on to Munich, I realize that I may only be three days into the new year but I’ve already got a new line for my map and tomorrow will bring another one, along with a rubber duckie souvenir. Not a bad way to start the year.

Related Posts:

• But [we] wait in Casablanca—and wait—and wait—and wait
• The value of a granola bar, and other Ghanaian currencies
• The world’s shortest commercial flight and me
• Checking Idaho off the list

American Express to cut f/x fees for Platinum & Centurion cards

Posted by Seth on December 21, 2010 under News | 4 Comments to Read

American Express has announced their intention to cut the foreign exchange fee – currently almost 3% – from their two premium credit cards lines, the US-based Platinum and Centurion cards. The fee is currently charged on all transactions that are posted in a currency other than US Dollars. The change is expected to be in effect towards the end of Q1 2011.

The foreign exchange fee is essentially pure profit for the credit card companies so they are generally loathe to waive it. In the face of significant competition from other issuers, however, the company felt it necessary to make the move. Chase has removed the f/x fee from their Hyatt and British Airways cards and Citi has removed it from a couple cards as well. There’s also the Schwab card (now serviced by FIA) that has no f/x fees. Considering that acceptance overseas is also lower for the AmEx products, being uncompetitive in costs was simply too much to make it reasonable for many folks to use it on transactions.

The change is still limited – only for the Platinum and Centurion cards – so the benefit will only apply to folks who are already spending a decent amount of cash annually to carry the card. And depending on which other cards you carry the value proposition for the loyalty points might still tend towards the other cards. But it is certainly nice to no longer be faced with paying an extra 3% for no particular reason at all.

Read more about it here.

Aeroplan to require Air Canada travel for status

Posted by Seth on December 3, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points | 6 Comments to Read

Aeroplan, the frequent flyer program associated with Air Canada announced a change today for their 2012 program and qualifying for status in the loyalty scheme. Most notable is that customers will actually have to fly on Air Canada in 2011 to qualify for status in 2012. A minimum of 10,000 elite qualifying miles (EQMs) or 5 segments on Air Canada metal will be required to receive any status. This requirement is in addition to the regular tier qualification levels.

Aeroplan has generally been an attractive program to park Star Alliance points in for many passengers, even if they never fly on the carrier. The primary reasons are twofold:

• First, the program is pretty useful for redemptions, particularly if you are not flying on Air Canada as part of the redemption. Their fees are generally low and the routing rules generally quite generous. With rates for premium redemption often better than the other North American Star Alliance programs it is easy to see why Aeroplan is attractive.
• Second, reaching status to permit lounge access is relatively easy. Middle-tier is reached at either 35K EQMs or 50 segments. This is the lowest requirement of any North American-based Star Alliance program and it comes with the full complement of Star Alliance Gold benefits, including lounge access on all itineraries. Unlike Star Gold on Continental, US Airways or United Airlines where lounge access to their own lounges is only permitted on international itineraries, a Star Gold from Air Canada gets access to all Star Gold lounges on any itinerary.

So number two is pretty much going away unless customers actually fly on Air Canada. While it is unfortunate to see yet another program limiting the value of its program it is also somewhat understandable. If the airline is generally receiving minimal revenue from a customer and paying out great benefits there isn’t much motivation to keep the status quo. Losing money on every customer but making it up in volume is not a recipe for long-term success in any industry.

That said, customers who are almost never flying on Air Canada and who are parking the points in the program just for the lounge access benefit might be wasting money with that approach. Lounge access can be had for a few hundred dollars annually. Parking 35,000 EQMs – likely the equivalent of 70,000 award miles – into an account where they’re orphaned is throwing away more money in point value than is being saved in lounge access costs. Then again, the quality of Aeroplan’s redemption scheme means that the points aren’t really being completely orphaned.

It is worth noting that other carriers, including American Airlines and British Airways have a similar policy of requiring some flights on their own metal for status. So Air Canada is not alone in this policy but it is still very much in the minority.

More discussion of the announcement can be found here.