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#1
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how do the arrival / departure dates affect ticket costs?
I've been trying to see how changing the arrival / departure date
affects the cost of a ticket (from aa.com) and have a few questions (all dates are 2008). A flight from July 14th to July 17th from AUS to LHR (and vice versa) costs $1922.00. A flight from July 14th to July 20th from AUS to LHR (and vice versa) costs $1375.00. A flight from July 14th to July 21st costs $1345.00. From July 17th to July 24th, it's $1405.00. My question is... what's determining the prices? Why are some flights more expensive then others? |
#2
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how do the arrival / departure dates affect ticket costs?
yawnmoth wrote:
I've been trying to see how changing the arrival / departure date affects the cost of a ticket (from aa.com) and have a few questions (all dates are 2008). A flight from July 14th to July 17th from AUS to LHR (and vice versa) costs $1922.00. A flight from July 14th to July 20th from AUS to LHR (and vice versa) costs $1375.00. A flight from July 14th to July 21st costs $1345.00. From July 17th to July 24th, it's $1405.00. My question is... what's determining the prices? Why are some flights more expensive then others? It might be helpful to know how the fare breaks down per segment (or direction). I would suspect there is a reason more people want to fly from LHR to AUS on July 17, and the cheapest fares are sold out. For the minor fare differences, some could be related to different fares offered on different days or at different times. There might also be some issues with some cheap fares sold out. Connecting through different locations could also affect the price. Some fares also have minimum stay requirements. There are a large number of reasons. Sporting events, political events, etc. |
#3
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how do the arrival / departure dates affect ticket costs?
On Dec 30, 10:35 pm, "Mr. Travel" wrote:
yawnmoth wrote: I've been trying to see how changing the arrival / departure date affects the cost of a ticket (from aa.com) and have a few questions (all dates are 2008). A flight from July 14th to July 17th from AUS to LHR (and vice versa) costs $1922.00. A flight from July 14th to July 20th from AUS to LHR (and vice versa) costs $1375.00. A flight from July 14th to July 21st costs $1345.00. From July 17th to July 24th, it's $1405.00. My question is... what's determining the prices? Why are some flights more expensive then others? It might be helpful to know how the fare breaks down per segment (or direction). I would suspect there is a reason more people want to fly from LHR to AUS on July 17, and the cheapest fares are sold out. For the minor fare differences, some could be related to different fares offered on different days or at different times. There might also be some issues with some cheap fares sold out. Connecting through different locations could also affect the price. Some fares also have minimum stay requirements. There are a large number of reasons. Sporting events, political events, etc. All the flights are the same. To LHR, it's AUS to DFW and DFW to LHR. From LHR, it's LHR to ORD and ORD to AUS. I'm not sure how to how to see how the fare breaks down per segment on aa.com. Also, if there's a reason more people would want to fly on a particular day... would there be any way to figure that out? Or would you just have to randomly pick days until you found the cheapest one? Thanks! |
#4
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how do the arrival / departure dates affect ticket costs?
yawnmoth wrote:
Also, if there's a reason more people would want to fly on a particular day... would there be any way to figure that out? Or would you just have to randomly pick days until you found the cheapest one? There are search engines that let you pick fares within a set of dates. I will stick with AA, since you mentioned them. Even on AA, if you choose by "Schedule and price", or something like that, it shows the prices for different fare classes and at the top of the screen, you can see the fares for segments before and after that date. Additionally, the "dates flexible" option on AA.com will show you the different fares, and with some work, you can select the fare and find out which days it is available. As I recall, you give it the number of days you want to travel and a date range of up to 30 days. AA.com now lets you see a month of award availablity at a time. As stated, some fare differences are determine by the number of days you stay. Without knowing the rules of the fare, which can be seen on AA, it is not possible to know the restrictions. It is possible the fare drops after July 17. It is also probable the lowest fare will change between now and July. There are many variables. Reasons for travel peaks to or from a destination 1. National holidsys near origin or destination location (or a connecting area) 2. Sports events (Superbowl, World Cup, Annual Longhorn/Sooners football game in Dallas) 3. Trade Shows (Comdex, for example) 4. Other large gatherings such as corporate events As stated, fares can change for a number of reasons. Some days there could be different capacity between the points along your routing. For example. On Wednesday, there are 2 flights between point A and B. On Thursday, there is only one flight, but the number of people that want to travel on Thursday is more than 1/2 the number that want to go on Wednesday. There are many reasons. You might also want to check pricing on other carriers, unless you need FF status points/miles on Aadvantage. Depending on the number of people traveling, it might also be reasonable savings to drive to DFW or Houston. I never planned this, but once drove IAH after weather delays made a trip to CUN in doubt for the second day. We grabbed a couple of other people who were also catching the IAH-CUN flight, rented a car, and rush to IAH in just enough time to make the flight. The AUS-IAH flight was still on the ground at AUS when we boarded the IAH-CUN flight. Of course, now I wouldn't fly CO Depending on the time/day, the drive to DFW can be fast. |
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