We’ve seen an increasing willingness of airlines to charge a premium for solo travelers, but I’ve just found a rather egregious example in which you can save $75 and enjoy twice as much space by buying a second seat on the same American Airlines flight. That’s right, not only are two seats cheaper than one, but the savings are real…
Airlines Penalize Solo Travelers: An Example
I travel from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh from time to time for work and American Airlines flies nonstop. I was looking at traveling on July 8th and AA was asking $424 for a one-way ticket in economy class:
But when I changed the passenger count from one to two, the price dropped to $175 each…for the same flight on the same day:
This wasn’t just a penalty or traveling solo (or, as airlines spin it, a discount for traveling with a companion), but more than twice the price! Nearly 2.5X more expensive. What kind of logic underpins a fare structure that can save you money by buying an extra seat on the same flight?!
Per aviation insider JonNYC, this is a policy AA calls P2 and it impacts select markets:
I get (I guess…) a slight “discount” for buying two tickets on the same flight, but making two cheaper than one strikes me as particularly punitive.
While this happens to be a very extreme example, this “news” is actually nothing new. I first noticed it in a Dan’s Deals forum earlier this year (in that case, a United flight from Newark – Cleveland was significantly more expensive if only buying one ticket versus two). But it has been widely covered by my colleagues and I do think it merits more coverage…and scrutiny.
Interestingly, I just spent some time trying to replicate this on United and Delta and was unsuccessful (even though I see many examples on other blogs that were available yesterday but are no longer available today), so perhaps airlines are rethinking this practice with a barrage of media scrutiny coming.
It’s true that business travelers are often willing to pay more for travel (because they are using “other people’s money”) and are more likely to travel solo, but rewarding people for buying two tickets instead of one to save money strikes me as a perverse incentive. Maybe AA and others think that since corporate travel policies would likely prohibit buying two tickets, the business traveler would be forced to buy one seat even if she could save her company money by buying a second seat on the same flight?
CONCLUSION
Mark this story as developing for now, but it appears we are geting just a bit closer to the sort of dynamic inventory pricing in which every passenger may get a different price based on their IP address, whether they are logged ino their loyalty account, or even based on how often they have searched for a particular flight or routing.
Have you seen this before? Does it make sense to charge less for two tickets than one?
Maybe there should be a Craigslist market for booking and selling tickets?
LAX-PIT-LAX $424
but if buy two tickets, it’s $175 x 2 = $350.
Or travel with a cello and save $74.
When I was single, I flew to Europe over 25 times and flew within the US many more times. Weekend travel was mostly what I did. As a couple, travel is for a week and not that common. Tick off single travelers and the airlines better hope that all airlines do this so that fliers will have nobody to boycott.
Do the two tickets have to be paid by the same credit card? If so, what if friends are traveling? This is crappy.
Does it show the difference on google flights or only when you check the airline website?
I just hope they put a non-rev in that empty seat, its tough enough!
I feel your pain but I don’t think we’ll get any sympathy. It’s sad to see this perk become virtually completely devalued/worthless over the years…. I”m even more grateful I traveled when I did when it was possible. With the overall decline in airline service, it’s also become more stressful than it’s worth.
Would this work for 2 seats for one passenger?
You can book “EXTRA/SEAT/MR.”
What happens if you book 2, but one ultimately needs to cancel (and bank the credit or whatever)? Are they allowed to force a rep pricing of the ticket that wasn’t touched?
Let me guess…
Dave, have you been boycotting me this week becuase you’re mad that Kyle deleted your very demeaning comment last Sunday?
Flame away at me, but leave him out of it…he’s got a lot of integrity and there’s no need to troll him about his work…his honest work. It’s one thing to banter, but you cross the line in attacking him in what seems like a particuarly vicious way without merit.
TLDR: attack me all you want, but not him.
Yeah, I boycott Kyle by not coming here on Sundays. Simple as that.