Continental pays you to fly!!!

[scuba e]

WTF!!!!
I just moved to San Antonio Texas from Southern California. I figured air to Roatan should be much cheaper now. What I found is that logic plays no part in airline prices.
Other than on a trip on Taca that took us from LAX through San Salvador, Tegucigalpa, La Cieba on to Roatan, we always fly Continental. With Continental we always have a layover in Houston (and usually miss our connection home).
We lived near Orange County airport. It is a smaller airport so I figured that is why it was usually about $100 more than flying out of LAX. But it was usually worth it to us.
Now we are about 45 minutes air time from Houston (from San Antonio). And this is where things get stupid.
I checked fares recently. I wanted to compare what it cost to fly from here vs. back in California.
From LAX to RTB with a stop in Houston= $618
From SNA (Orange County)= $851

Now, from SAT (San Antonio)= $750!!!
And if I drove the 3 hours to Houston to just fly direct= $670!!!!!

How the hell is it $132 cheaper to fly from LAX to Houston than from San Antonio to Houston!?
WHats more, How can they really charge $52 more to fly straight out of Houston!?!?!?!

From what I can see here is that Continental Airlines will pay you $52 to fly from LAX to Houston.

There has to be something Roatan and/or the diving community can do about this. We don't have many options to get there. By boycotting we just don't get to dive and we hurt Roatan's dive business. Any ideas?

PS: A very special holiday F you to Continental.

 

[Thiad]

When you figure it out please tell me. I was pricing tickets to Europe from LAX and it was cheaper than from JFK. Crazy!!

 

[krawlings]

Supply and demand. The higher the demand the higher the price . lower demand the lower the price lower demand they need to fill the seats so lower price . the high demand seats are full (and over book) they can ask a higher price and people will pay

 

[Doc]

This is really nothing new.

I lived in Northern Illinois and worked for USSA (The Ski Team).

If I flew to Salt Lake City (SLC) from O'hare (ORD) it was $450. If I drove to Milwaukee (MLW) (parked more cheaply) and flew to O'hare and then SLC, it was $390.

We used to buy the Milwaukee > O'hare > SLC ticket, but sometimes just jump on the plane in O'hare missing the Milwaukee leg.

This was a fairly well known trick, so the airlines (with the strong arm of "security needs") curtailed this practice.

Airlines will do what they will do.

Roatan... what else were we going to do, walk?

 

[laurenceh]

i always fly on AA from o'hare to san pedro sula via miami, midweek its usually around $300 rt. however if i took the same flight but only as far as miami its around $450, its like getting $150 back to continue on to honduras ???

 

[Potapko]

I agree with Thiad. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. REcently we flew from Colorado Springs to Springfield MO, Price was $300 RT. I noticed the flight went through Denver. So I thought I would knock out a leg and drive to Denver. That ticket to Springfield was $450 RT

 

[DandyDon]

Supply and demand. The higher the demand the higher the price . lower demand the lower the price lower demand they need to fill the seats so lower price . the high demand seats are full (and over book) they can ask a higher price and people will pay

Supply, demand, and COMPETITION. The people who create fares and manage inventory have much more insight than we will ever have, and - they make mistakes at times.

This has been happening since the 80s that I know of. Some have tried to trick the systems at times and incurred backfires. Just buy what you want.

Go to Matrix - ITA Software - bookmark it, learn how to shop all nearby cities for origins and/or destinations, and enjoy.

 

[Tug]

I live in the northeast and worked in Houston a few years ago on a tugboat. I had to book my own flights and it was often times cheaper to buy a round trip ticket than a one way ticket. Didn't make any sense, but I always booked the roung trip and just used it as a one way. I've given up on trying to figure out airline ticket fares now...

 

[jlevine]

Long ago, cities liked that they were chosen to be hubs for airlines. Now, that's not necessarily the case. If you fly from a hub, you may very well have higher prices if your hub has a non-stop to your final destination. If you are a "slave" to a certain hub, you have fewer options and pay higher fares. Beyond that, it's supply and demand. Roatan has pretty much no say in any of this. The airlines "like" or "hate" Roatan depending on whether it's profitable or painful to send planes there. I remember not too long ago that TACA was the only major international carrier that flew to Roatan from the US. Many people complained about the lack of competition. Then, Continental and Delta arrived and TACA began to scale back. I have also heard (but haven't verified) that Honduras has higher landing fees which are in turn passed on to consumers.

 

[drbill]

Competitiveness of the routes involved, specific fees and charges to the carrier at different airports, and a host of incomprehensible reasons none of us understand.