air fare pricing

[sunnybunny]

Hi

We've had some relatives visiting from Calgary, we picked them up from Manchester airport as it was apparently cheaper to fly BA from Calgary to London and then on to Manchester than just in to Heathrow.

We have an invitation to visit them and I have been investigating flight costs and discovered it is cheaper to fly from Manchester to London and then to Calgary than to start from London.

This is true of BA and Air Canada (they offer MAN-CPH-LHR-YYC!)

I know there are LCC from MAN to YYC who are cheaper and direct but I was wondering if anyone could offer an insight in to how it is cheaper to fly further with the national carriers?

I have used 7/5/16 and 21/5/16 as dates and found £700 ish for national carriers or £450-500 ish for LCC.

[MathFox]

In short: connecting flights are considered inferior to direct flights, that's why they are priced lower.

Another view: passengers that take the (faster, more convenient) direct flight subsidize the passengers which take connections.

[DaveReidUK]

In short: connecting flights are considered inferior to direct flights, that's why they are priced lower.

The OP isn't talking about a comparison between direct vs connecting flights.

[Donkey497]

In short Manchester isn't a hub for BA, so they apply discounts to route combinations to make it more attractive for people to fly through their hub, rather than take a direct flight.
For AC it's a little less clear, but it's likely that they take the view that routing people through fewer "trunk" routes makes more business sense than through many more thinner routes for their specific fleet make-up and its particular combination of range / passenger capacity & freight payloads and they tailor their fare structure accordingly.


This kind of harks back to the increased use of the 757 on the "long & thin" transatlantic routes from the western edge of Europe to the Eastern coast of the North American continent, as well as the more traditional use of across the width of the USA or Canada. The 757 is a very good fit for these routes and carries a reasonably profitable combination of freight and passengers at an economic hull and fuel cost, whereas a 787 or 737, A321 or A330 would be a bit too big or a bit too small, or not have enough range or even that the pool of passengers & freight between the two points isn't big enough to support regular high capacity service, but is big enough to fall outside acceptability for an occasional or seasonal service.
In short, there are too many unknown factors around routing, aircraft availability, daily passenger loading variations, to make it look like anything else other than an a wholly illogical system.

[lomapaseo]

They charge what the traffic will bear, just like a paint store.

[ExXB]

Manchester to Calgary is a different market than London to Calgary. (and different again for the Calgary to Manchester/London markets.)

In each market each airline will try to find that magic number that takes their particular operation into account. BA being indirect must price their services a little bit lower than a non-stop, or direct airline. If they priced it higher they likely will not get the business. The price from London to the same destination is actually irrelevant to what they can sell in Manchester.

Of course the business/first markets will differ where BA's indirect operation could be preferred to other airlines direct product - FF miles earned, onboard comfort/service/etc. In this case their prices could be higher than the direct, because they know some of the punters will pay ... (or let their employers do so).

Pricing has got nothing to do with costs, it's got everything to do with what the customer will pay. The perfect price is what the customer will pay, no more, no less.

[sunnybunny]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

With a bit of further digging then there is a similar routing from my local airport BHX to YYC via LHR but at about £160 more than from MAN.

As there are no direct flights from BHX to YYC by a LCC it does look like there is discount to try and capture some of that traffic from MAN.

Thanks again everyone

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

It's worse than UK railways! I was once told that no two people on a flight paid the same fare.

[Groundloop]

I was once told that no two people on a flight paid the same fare.

Well, when I travel with my wife we have usually paid the same fare!:ok:

[lomapaseo]

Well, when I travel with my wife we have usually paid the same fare!

Fair point, if on the same PNR

Could you run another check next time by buying your two tickets separately on two different PNRs hours apart :)

[davidjpowell]

We did a round trip earlier this year, flying from Dublin, to London To Vegas. Then to Miami a few days later. Then back to London and on to Dublin.

The Dublin Start/End saved about £700 after the cost of getting to/from Dublin from the UK, about a 1/3 of our flight cost, versus leaving from London.

[Phileas Fogg]

SunnyBunny,

I just took a look on fly dot com for the dates you mention, BHX & MAN are priced similarly between GBP650 and GBP700, from LGW Air Transat direct for GBP438.

[ExXB]

And yet if you priced a London Las Vegas /Miami via Dublin you likely would have found lower prices than For direct / non-stop flights.

Pricing is not Fare (pun intended).

[sunnybunny]

SunnyBunny,

I just took a look on fly dot com for the dates you mention, BHX & MAN are priced similarly between GBP650 and GBP700, from LGW Air Transat direct for GBP438.

Hi Yes I am sure there are deals around. I was looking at the airlines web site for prices and wondered at the anomalies.

If and when I travel then I will research all avenues looking at price, convenience ( I don't want multiple flights if I can) and finally if I can use my avios points to arrange an upgrade.

I am leaning towards Air Transat from Manchester upgrading to equivalent of business which looks like being the same price as cattle class on others.

Once again thanks for your replies.