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Sign of the Apocalyse: American’s Cheap, Refundable Long-Haul Fares
It was a big enough shock to see airline change fees start melting away, but now there’s something even stranger happening. American is experimenting with affordable, refundable fares on long-haul...
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The Weird and Confusing World of Ticket Validity
Chatter has been rising around what is going to happen to all those unused airline credits as more and more of them pile up. See, airlines have been issuing credits like the US government has been...
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United Makes a Confusing But Clever Rule Change That Targets Online Travel...
Word came out last week that United had finally backtracked off its plan to force travelers to forfeit residual value when changing a ticket to a cheaper fare. On the surface, this looks like United...
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More Complicated Fares Coming to an Airline Near You
People have long complained about the complexity involved in airline fares, but you ain’t seen nothing yet. ATPCO — the industry’s fare clearinghouse and owner of Routehappy — had its annual Elevate...
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Yes Fares Will Rise, But Only if Demand Grows or Capacity Falls
I’ve heard the question from friends, media, colleagues… will fares rise because of rising oil prices? The answer is… they shouldn’t in the short term. In the long run, probably, but it remains to be...
View ArticleCranky on the Web: How Oil Affects Fares
How rising fuel and strong demand could affect airfares – Travel WeeklyI went on The Folo podcast by Travel Weekly to talk about what really impacts fares. Come join us for a 30 minute discussion to...
View ArticleCranky on the Web: Rising Fares, New Rules on Buying Tickets, and Fight on a...
Rising Fares, Low-Cost Airlines: Navigating the New Reality in the Sky – The New York TimesThe Frugal Traveler looks at airfares and where they’re going. I spoke mostly about some of the low cost...
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Southwest’s Big Price Increase Went Into Effect Last Week
You probably saw all the press touting Southwest’s new fare category, Wanna Get Away Plus, that officially launched last week. While yes, there is some good news here, it is also a sizable price...
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Newark Leaving the NYC City Code Is Not a Big Deal
Starting on October 3, Newark will no longer be considered a New York City airport… or something like that. The reality is actually quite boring, but the news has spread like wildfire thanks to...
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When Hot Markets Go Cold: Orlando Edition
We heard last year all about the struggles in the ultra low cost carrier (ULCC) world, but now that we have DOT’s Q3 2023 data, we can see just how bad things were. I was particularly interested to...
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When Hot Markets Go Cold: Vegas Edition
I looked at the awful Q3 results for Orlando last week, and this week it’s time to look at the other market everyone’s talking about: Las Vegas. Las Vegas is similar to Orlando in that it saw a big...
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American’s Revenue Performance Sinks
Cirium recently loaded the Department of Transportation’s DB1B data for Q4 2023, and I eagerly dove in to look for trends. What kept standing out everywhere I looked was American’s poor revenue...
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