How does US charge so much less?

[scoreboardII]

It's called, revenue management. Like you, others don't want to fly US, so US has to offer lower fares on those routes than the competition to stimulate demand. If as you say, they need to charge more, then they would be flying empty jets. They appear to be making money doing this, or have. It's not rocket science, its business.

 

[Flybywire44]

Looking at fares recently for various city pairs and was baffled at how US Airways is able to charge 50%+ less than DL UA AA etc.

I'm getting a little annoyed at this since the company deadheads me on the cheapest ticket and that usually means US via the opposite direction to where I'm heading, ending up with a very long day when nonstop flights are available.

How in the world do they do this and what effect will the AA merger have on their fares?

There are many reasons why US Airways charges lower fares.

1) Charlotte and Phoenix have very low airport landing fees. These airports have little O/D traffic so they like US Airways have a lower price structure to capture traffic.

2) US Airways is the largest Airbus operator in the world. Their airbus fleet is somewhat young with lower fuel burns and maintenance costs. The a321 in particular yields great fuel economy, but is so under powered that it rarely reaches FL340 in the summer.

3) Little money has been put into the overall LCC operation as the airline has been positioned to merge for years and is a bare bones operation. Pilots for example interact with a MS-DOS based computer program for bidding. The airline is dominated by dot matrix printers.

4) Two successive bankruptcies dramatically lowered US Airways capital structure?US Airways was obliterated by Southwest in the late 90s and early 2000s and the industry celebrated the demise of US Airways. I recall the VP and Director of FltOps at my former airline preaching that US Airways would liquidate in 2009 and we'd secure LCC flying. In retrospect US Airways has somewhat replaced Southwest as a low cost carrier. I was shocked to see SWA remove service from PIT and PHL.

5) The current LCC pilot and flight attendant contracts are shockingly substandard and subsidize US Airways' competitive ticket prices.


scoreboardII, I would expect to see US Airways airfare rise after their merger with American, but so will Delta's and United's. Many people have fallen in love with the Delta Skymiles Program and high quality of service, but US Airways for now makes up for a perception of poor service with cheaper ticket pricing?your welcome.

If you ever get tired of paying too much for airline tickets you can always apply to US Airways. By the time you get hired we'll have bases in MIA and JFK.

 

[Pattern-Master]

Looking at fares recently for various city pairs and was baffled at how US Airways is able to charge 50%+ less than DL UA AA etc.

I'm getting a little annoyed at this since the company deadheads me on the cheapest ticket and that usually means US via the opposite direction to where I'm heading, ending up with a very long day when nonstop flights are available.

How in the world do they do this and what effect will the AA merger have on their fares?

Ha,ha. Sounds like my company. We always do the "CLT shuffle" when being repositioned on the east coast and midwest locations. It sucks!

 

[zasca]

Stupid thread.... And why on earth would Airways try to match fares in cities that are AA/Delta hubs???

 

[DCAA320]

You guys are all a bunch of TOOLS! I was merely stating that I am baffled at how US Airways is able to charge so much less for similar city pairs than the other majors. Being home based, commercial travel is the only way we operate, but having to fly MIA-PHX-JFK for $250 just to go to work when I can fly MIA-ATL-JFK for $450 or direct for $500 it makes a huge difference (fares and city pairs only an example). The downside to this is our productivity is shot when we spend all day deadheading when we could go direct into a flight or out of a flight, save on hotels, etc...

On the flip side, maybe if your company charged more for tickets they would make more money and be able to pay higher wages.

Dude, they are just filling open seats if they have them. If u fly MIA-PHX-JFK u r just not that important.

 

[Flybywire44]

Dude, they are just filling open seats if they have them. If u fly MIA-PHX-JFK u r just not that important.

sat74, if you can't beat'em join'em?

 

[Bringupthebird]

How in the world do they do this

That's easy. Get a bunch of emotional kids to trade their pay (oh, and that of about 5000 other pilots) vacation, work rules and retirement for a chance to pretend to be union bigshots aka USAPA.

Shortsighted pilot stupidity is LCCs competitive advantage and they have exploited it to the fullest.

You can send the boys in Charlotte a fruit basket thank you if you want.