Ticket Price Riddle...

rickyrhodesii

rickyrhodesii

Well-Known Member
Can someone explain how Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz are able to offer lower ticket prices (same flights) than the airlines themselves? Even between Expedia, Travelosity, or Orbitz the prices are different. Why is that?

Thanks!
 
rickyrhodesii said:
Can someone explain how Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz are able to offer lower ticket prices (same flights) than the airlines themselves? Even between Expedia, Travelosity, or Orbitz the prices are different. Why is that?

Thanks!
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I'm also curious as to how us airline employees get quoted prices higher than Orbitz/Expedia for flights where we would be using a buddy pass/ID90
 
I doubt an ID90 is going to be cheaper then orbitz/expedia. Maybe a ED20 will cost more, and depending on the system a buddy pass certainly can be more expensive.
 
rickyrhodesii said:
Can someone explain how Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz are able to offer lower ticket prices (same flights) than the airlines themselves? Even between Expedia, Travelosity, or Orbitz the prices are different. Why is that?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Ticket prices should be $5-11 cheaper on the airline's website, because you won't have to pay the administrative fees. For example, if you find a $121 ticket from NY-LA, you should be able to go to that airline's website and find the ticket for $116 (I think it's Orbitz which charges $5). What a lot of those sites do is "conveniently not update the database that much" so it might show that you can get a seat for $150, but when you try to book it, you get the "Sorry, it's not available" line. The prices are different because of the charges that the different website companies add, and the fares they search. Orbitz, IIRC, has the most thorough search.
 
Chris_Ford said:
Ticket prices should be $5-11 cheaper on the airline's website, because you won't have to pay the administrative fees. For example, if you find a $121 ticket from NY-LA, you should be able to go to that airline's website and find the ticket for $116 (I think it's Orbitz which charges $5). What a lot of those sites do is "conveniently not update the database that much" so it might show that you can get a seat for $150, but when you try to book it, you get the "Sorry, it's not available" line. The prices are different because of the charges that the different website companies add, and the fares they search. Orbitz, IIRC, has the most thorough search.
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Chris on 2 occasions, it was cheaper THROUGH orbitz.

LAX-MIA we got a 240 OUT THE DOOR on orbitz, and on the website on the same flight and same flight number - 365.
 
The air fares probably aren't something fixed? When I went to United's website to book at flight to Toronto for example, every few minutes that I checked, the same seats would cost differently. Do they have random air fares in which the fairs can go from $A-$B and people can get any price within that?
 
Yeah, no kidding BCT. From the time I first wrote the post to now, 3 hours later, the tickets I'm looking at have DROPPED $60!?! I checked the airline's site, Delta, and the same tickets are $110 more expensive on Delta's website than Orbitz.com.

I'm still scratching my head on this one.

Here's another head scratcher:

I'm booking "BHM-ATL-HNL"
Price: $680

Booking "ATL-HNL"
Price: $850

What?!? I pay $170 MORE fly less?!? Same flight from ATL-HNL. I don't get this at all.
 
Here's another one for you....On my honeymoon we went to HNL.

1 ticket:

MSP-HNL (1 stop - Lax) $900 no plane change

2 tickets
MSP-LAX $200
LAX-HNL $250

btw, same exact DC10 from Minny.

So by purchasing two separate tickets (1 city pair each) instead of the 1 ticket from MSP-HNL I saved $450 per person. That $900 paid for our hotel.

That's the good thing about the travel sites, you can view the various choices in one spot. You just got to do the legwork.
 
My non-businessey understanding is that sites like those buy airfare in bulk from the airlines. That becomes guaranteed income for the airline whether a ticket gets sold or not. So, the bulk-buyers get a volume discount.

Or I may be totally off-base.
 
Minuteman said:
My non-businessey understanding is that sites like those buy airfare in bulk from the airlines. That becomes guaranteed income for the airline whether a ticket gets sold or not. So, the bulk-buyers get a volume discount.

Or I may be totally off-base.
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But if the seats are sold to a second party then how can you still go to the airline's website and buy the same tickets?
 
You'll probably spend less time and have more success trying to figure out what the "C" is in E=mc^2 than trying to rationalize airline ticket pricing.
 
JEP said:
Here's another one for you....On my honeymoon we went to HNL.

1 ticket:

MSP-HNL (1 stop - Lax) $900 no plane change

2 tickets
MSP-LAX $200
LAX-HNL $250

btw, same exact DC10 from Minny.

So by purchasing two separate tickets (1 city pair each) instead of the 1 ticket from MSP-HNL I saved $450 per person. That $900 paid for our hotel.

That's the good thing about the travel sites, you can view the various choices in one spot. You just got to do the legwork.
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Except you violate your contract of carriage by doing that, so if your HNL-LAX flight would've gotten cancelled, they wouldn't necessarily have to rebook you on LAX-MSP as well.
 
Minuteman said:
My non-businessey understanding is that sites like those buy airfare in bulk from the airlines. That becomes guaranteed income for the airline whether a ticket gets sold or not. So, the bulk-buyers get a volume discount.

Or I may be totally off-base.
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I'm fairly sure they don't buy any tickets, they just search SABRE (or something similar to that) for miscellaneous fare classes and things like that.
 
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