Ticket pricing anomaly

[El Grifo]

Can anyone help explain this ?
I was looking for a Business Return MAD - LAX.
Skyscanner came up with an Americanprice of €3908 on a codeshare flight on Iberia.
I reckoned that was pretty good.
Out of interest, I checked with Iberia.
Same flight, same date, same seat, €6408 !!

If American are making a profit on the first price, what sort of ticketing price is taking place with Iberia charging almost €2.5k more ?
Any Clues ??

El Grifo

[Globaliser]

Same flight, same date, same seat ...It helps to think of the American flight number and the Iberia flight number as being two entirely different flights, each with their own commercial context (including pricing strategy and tactics), that just happen to plan to share the same aircraft come the day of departure. I know there's an element of surrealism about doing that, but that is fundamentally why this sort of thing happens.

[El Grifo]

Can deffo agree that a price difference of €2.5k is verging on the surreal :bored:

Thanks for that Globaliser

El G.

[Donkey497]

Never, ever, ever assume there is any kind of logic that your average occupant of this particular reality could comprehend inside any given lifetime that explains how airlines work out what to splash across the screen (& how long for) as the price for any given seat on any given aircraft on any given route on any given day.

Just go on the assumption that whenever you do commit, it will be an inconveniently large random number that it you later compare price paid with the occupant of the seat either side of you will bear no relation whatsoever to what they have paid.

[El Grifo]

Never, ever, ever assume there is any kind of logic that your average occupant of this particular reality could comprehend inside any given lifetime that explains how airlines work out what to splash across the screen (& how long for) as the price for any given seat on any given aircraft on any given route on any given day.

Just go on the assumption that whenever you do commit, it will be an inconveniently large random number that it you later compare price paid with the occupant of the seat either side of you will bear no relation whatsoever to what they have paid.

Ha !! Love it :-)

El G.

[El Grifo]

Point in case !
Had a shoot in the Maldives. 16 Islands.
LHR-DUB-MLE
Booked Cattle Class on Emirates for 1st leg.
24hrs later my travel guy came back saying sorry, only one seat left in coach, one of you has been upgraded to business.
No way Jose. Both or none !
Travel guy comes back, OK, pay another €400 and you are both in business.

Client approves, so of we go.
Get to boarding and asked for boarding passes and tickets. WTF ??
Get handed an envelope and told to turn left on boarding.
There we are, pointy end.

Eventually looked at contents of envelope. Tickets about 5 times more than we (or client) had actually paid.
Bing Bong. Cabin person rocks up.
Excuse me but what is with this astronomical price.
Well sir, if you happen to drop your original tickets and someone picks them up, seeing what you really paid, sh#t could hit the fan !!

Chilled vodka with your caviar sir?
Why not sez us :-)

El G

[Hartington]

El G - The precise details differ across different markets but the idea of showing the "public fare" in the Fare box on the ticket and hiding what you actually paid somewhere else on the ticket (the tour code box is a favourite but it's usually some form of code rather than the actual fare paid) has been around since the 1980s and probably earleir.

[El Grifo]

Probably a smart move by Emirates !
Taking away my €800 Ticket and handing me an €8000 priced ticket.

Could have created quite the kerfuffle if the original had fallen into the wrong hands :-)

El G.

[treadigraph]

Remember reading many many years ago that it was entirely possible no two passengers paid the same fare on some flights.

(arranging a train trip a couple of years ago, friend texted to say he was up for it while I was sitting in a park - I checked train times and there was some super cheap off peak deal available on one service, texted to say shall we aim for that? By the time he replied yes, I was walking - got home, tried to book my ticket - all gone, I paid the next best price while my mate got the cheaper deal!)

[PAXboy]

Computers and the Internet are wonderful inventions...