Are fares based on the popularity of a route?

Just been looking at UC fares to Las Vegas in February. Was quoted just over £3k for UC (lowest).
Did the same for San Francisco around the same dates, same fare type, and got a quote of £2400.

Considering there's a £700 difference nearly, is this because Las Vegas is a more popular place to visit, LGW instead of LHR or what?

Looks like it would be better to fly to SFO, catch a cheap internal flight, and spend the extra £400-500 on accomodation etc.

[preiffer]

In part, yes - but you also have to remember that there are only 14 Upper Class seats to sell (as opposed to 48 on the LHR planes).

Supply and demand

[Nottingham Nick]

Airline tickets, to a degree, are like concert tickets. They are worth as much as people are prepared to pay for them.

Hence the spikes on the popular routes and the spikes on the B&S routes when the school holidays kick in.

I am sure there are very clever people at VS who decide how many seats of each class to allocate. These number are always under review, and it seems that if loads look light, then VS will release more 'cheap seats' closer to the flight date.

I remember reading in previous threads that the base fares are actually set industry wide for all of the routes.

Nick

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by xenole
Just been looking at UC fares to Las Vegas in February. Was quoted just over £3k for UC (lowest).
Did the same for San Francisco around the same dates, same fare type, and got a quote of £2400.

Considering there's a £700 difference nearly, is this because Las Vegas is a more popular place to visit, LGW instead of LHR or what?

Looks like it would be better to fly to SFO, catch a cheap internal flight, and spend the extra £400-500 on accomodation etc.

That is what a lot of people do,fly into LAX or SFO then catch one of the shuttles to Vegas.We have a group "outing" in Nov (please no jokes guys:D)and most people are flying into using these routes..As you said yfor what you save on the flights can go on show's,fodd or heaven forbid in Vegas some gambling.

I don't think they are, at least the U.S-U.K-U.S. prices aren't. Because JFK and EWR are very popular, but yet they are the cheapest prices from the U.S. They seem to do it more using distance from here. (Although I think NYC is cheaper than BOS).

[mitchja]

VS are also in a position to charge more for their LGW>LAS flights as VS still more or less have a monolopy on direct flgiths to LAS from the UK. OK BMI now fly direct but still only from MAN.

I dont think there are any other airlines flying direct from London to LAS [?]

There's more competition on other VS routes hence lower fares.

Regards

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by mitchja
VS are also in a position to charge more for their LGW>LAS flights as VS still more or less have a monolopy on direct flgiths to LAS from the UK. OK BMI now fly direct but still only from MAN.

I dont think there are any other airlines flying direct from London to LAS [?]

There's more competition on other VS routes hence lower fares.

Regards

First choice fly's direct now.. not the same thing of course being charter..also it will be interesting to see what happens to prices on this route is US air opens it up direct..at the mo they are charing $2800 for envoy compared to $5300 for uc..of course USair has a connection in Phily or Charlotte..competion is always good for prices