Have J fares REALLY increased by £1,000?

[preiffer]

I'm planning a trip next March, and as a result was just looking at flights. I know we've all been noticing small fare increases over time, but this is starting to wind me up a bit now:


If you exclude taxes & surcharges (which, as we know, factor in the fuel increases), take like-for-like seasons (where I have previous purchases to compare), the base fare costs for flights has changed since 2003:

Economy L was £337 now=£405
(increase of £68 / 20%)

Premium K was £582 now=£705
(increase of £123 / 21%)

Upper Z was £2,036 now=£2,219
(increase of £183 / 9%)

Upper J was £5,504 now=£6,436
(increase of £932 / 17%)

(Each of these was the lowest available price within the fare bucket, checked just now with ExpertFlyer for LHR-SFO)

Although I appreciate that companies have to make money, are they really saying that the cost to service a ticket has literally increased by 20% in 2 years? [:0]

(didn't they save 1% by taking out the little red pillows in J? [:p])

[Scrooge]

As i've been saying,VS's fare's seem a litle out of wack,for our upcoming LAX-LHR trip in PE VS wants $2,436.00 pp,BA is at $1000 pp,revenue mismanagment at work again?

Who know's maybe VS is getting this price for them,is so [y] for them,maybe some price corrections are on the way.

A 20% year over year is high for any industry,the fact that they are getting it for Y is even more amazing.

[mitchja]

I guess you need to look at other airlines as well. I could be wrong here but I always presumed VS fares were always pretty close to BA fares but I haven't really researched it that much so I've no idea how VS fares compare to other airlines.

When I booked my Z fare to DXB for March I compared it against BA and VS fares were like-for-like for discounted fares in Upper, Premium and Economy.

Regards

[preiffer]

Originally posted by mitchja
I could be wrong here but I always presumed VS fares were always pretty close to BA fares but I haven't really researched it that much so I've no idea how VS fares compare to other airlines.

Oh, they certainly are - here's the BA/VS listing. The fares are entirely identical to BA (for reasons we all know) when looking at the equivalent fare codes:

RLNCGB5 BA R Round-Trip 305.00 (GBP)
QLXGB VS Q Round-Trip 305.00 (GBP)
QLWGB VS Q Round-Trip 335.00 (GBP)
MLNCGB5 BA M Round-Trip 355.00 (GBP)
MLXGB VS M Round-Trip 355.00 (GBP)
MLWGB VS M Round-Trip 385.00 (GBP)
KLNCGB5 BA K Round-Trip 405.00 (GBP)
LLXGB VS L Round-Trip 405.00 (GBP)
LLWGB VS L Round-Trip 435.00 (GBP)
HLNCGB5 BA H Round-Trip 455.00 (GBP)
BLXGB VS B Round-Trip 455.00 (GBP)
BLWGB VS B Round-Trip 485.00 (GBP)
YLXGB VS Y Round-Trip 505.00 (GBP)
YLWGB VS Y Round-Trip 535.00 (GBP)
TLAPGB5 BA T Round-Trip 705.00 (GBP)
KLXAP VS K Round-Trip 705.00 (GBP)
KLWAP VS K Round-Trip 735.00 (GBP)
SLXAP7 VS S Round-Trip 1095.00 (GBP)
SLWAP7 VS S Round-Trip 1125.00 (GBP)
W2BA BA W Round-Trip 1962.00 (GBP)
WX1R VS W Round-Trip 1962.00 (GBP)
WW1R VS W Round-Trip 2112.00 (GBP)
ILAPGB BA I Round-Trip 2219.00 (GBP)
ZLAP VS Z Round-Trip 2219.00 (GBP)
DLAPGB BA D Round-Trip 3059.00 (GBP)
DLAP1 VS D Round-Trip 3059.00 (GBP)
CRT1 BA C Round-Trip 5063.00 (GBP)
DAP7 VS D Round-Trip 5063.00 (GBP)
J2BA BA J Round-Trip 6236.00 (GBP)
JW2R VS J Round-Trip 6436.00 (GBP)

What gets me, however, is not any disparity between the competition - it's what possible justification there can be for this level of increase over such a short period of time... [V][:(!]

[Scrooge]

Sorry,just me having my bi-daily vent over the situation[:I].

The only thing I can say is that VS obviously feel's that they can get away with charging a premium,if you look at that ad from the 80's the prices 'cept for J havn't increased that much,as we know here in the states part of the problems airlines have gotten themseleves in has been the fact that they have been unable to increase fares due to LCC's.

Maybe VS is just trying to push fares up,of course BA will match them and maybe the US airlines will follow.If the demand is there and the pax are willing to pay it then yes im afraid we will see increase's like this in the future.

Still cant understand the price difference on the LAX-LHR route though?

What gets me, however, is not any disparity between the competition - it's what possible justification there can be for this level of increase over such a short period of time... [V][:(!]

In any other industry it would be called price fixing!

Just checked for my annual MIA post-Easter holiday and the UC price is almost identical to this year ... but have noted a number of other posts commenting on fare hikes and disparity with BA. Other than the excellent current sale!

[ChuckC]

Paul,

Is it possible that VS has kept a few aircraft out of the air in order to fill the remaining ones, thus "justifying" the need to raise prices? Wouldn't surprise me, given the doubling of jet fuel prices and the improving demand for air travel.

Knowing you, I am positive that a strategy will soon emerge to conquer this problem!:D

Chuck-

Originally posted by slinky09
In any other industry it would be called price fixing!

I some industries they would call it healthy competition! ie the competitors are watching each other so closely that there prices are hardly ever out of line. To me this kind of price matching is exactly what you would expect to see in a very competitive, commodity market.

To be honest, I doubt that cost comes into the pricing calculation, nor IMO is it relevant. It is all about availability. I know the seasons are the same on the comparison you have drawn, but the amount of UK/US trafic has gone up drastically since 2003. I am not sure what has happened to capacity though.

Either way, I really do think this is a pretty competitive route, and do not think you can argue rip-off Britain on this one.