Delta-Price Skyrocketed - Why???

[mamacatnv]

I purchased our flights for Dec 06/Jan 07 in early February of this year. They changed once so far and I was able to get a more desirable later(more expensive) departure due to the schedule changes. I periodically check the fares, glutton for punishment I guess. Anyway, my question to anyone who may happen to know the strategies of the major carriers is this:

The flights I originally booked and paid $310 for jumped to $900 today! There are other flights that come in at the $400 mark, but for some reason mine jumped a lot. I have a flight from Reno to Atlanta and Atlanta to MCO. The other "cheaper" options are the crop dusting planes from Reno to Salt Lake and then a larger plane from Salt Lake to Orlando(family quickly vetoed the crop dusters ). I looked at the seat assignments and so far they are still pretty wide open. Is this something a major carrier will do to discourage purchasing and then being able to justify cancelling the flight????

Just curious..........................

 

[rparmfamily]

I purchased our flights for Dec 06/Jan 07 in early February of this year. They changed once so far and I was able to get a more desirable later(more expensive) departure due to the schedule changes. I periodically check the fares, glutton for punishment I guess. Anyway, my question to anyone who may happen to know the strategies of the major carriers is this:

The flights I originally booked and paid $310 for jumped to $900 today! There are other flights that come in at the $400 mark, but for some reason mine jumped a lot. I have a flight from Reno to Atlanta and Atlanta to MCO. The other "cheaper" options are the crop dusting planes from Reno to Salt Lake and then a larger plane from Salt Lake to Orlando(family quickly vetoed the crop dusters ). I looked at the seat assignments and so far they are still pretty wide open. Is this something a major carrier will do to discourage purchasing and then being able to justify cancelling the flight????

Just curious..........................

Well you are still technically 7 months out from your departure date so that answers the availability. The reason for a price change could be many different things but they are not looking at cancelling the flight. The price depends on what fare codes are available. All of the LUT fares might be gone already. What are your travel dates??

Rex

 

[RainbowsMist]

I too booked our flights for next March back in April. I just checked and our exact flights are now selling for $692.41 (each) !!!!! We paid 281.91 CAD (each).

Are these price increases only because today is a holiday??

I've been watching a flight with Frontier Airlines for my niece from Calgary to MCO and it too went from $503 to $569. I'm thinking I should grab it now incase it goes up more.

 

[rparmfamily]

I too booked our flights for next March back in April. I just checked and our exact flights are now selling for $692.41 (each) !!!!! We paid 281.91 CAD (each).

Are these price increases only because today is a holiday??

I've been watching a flight with Frontier Airlines for my niece from Calgary to MCO and it too went from $503 to $569. I'm thinking I should grab it now incase it goes up more.

It is probably and most likely due to the inventory of seats available.

Rex

 

[mamacatnv]

Well you are still technically 7 months out from your departure date so that answers the availability. The reason for a price change could be many different things but they are not looking at cancelling the flight. The price depends on what fare codes are available. All of the LUT fares might be gone already. What are your travel dates??

Rex

Departure 12/25/06 from Reno to MCO and returning 1/9/07 MCO to Reno.

What is LUT??????

 

[dvc guy]

Could be less capacity. I am booked on1/1 from MCO/LGA, first Song then Delta, now they have gone from 1 class of service (757)to 2 class(757), a loss of 48 coach seats overnight.
The plan to move more seats overseas and reduce domestic seats. On a typical day they fly 4 non stops from MCO/LGA. By going back to 2 class of service they take almost 200 coach seats out of inventory.

Simple law of supply and demand.

 

[rparmfamily]

Departure 12/25/06 from Reno to MCO and returning 1/9/07 MCO to Reno.

What is LUT??????

LUT are cheapest of the fare basis codes. L Fare U Fare T Fare. Whenever you book a ticket you want to book on the lowest fare code and Delta's lowest is T. Each airline has their own fare basis codes for pricing.

I am showing a fare of $348.00 all in from RNO-MCO on those dates booked in T class.

Rex

 

[rparmfamily]

Could be less capacity. I am booked on1/1 from MCO/LGA, first Song then Delta, now they have gone from 1 class of service (757)to 2 class(757), a loss of 48 coach seats overnight.
The plan to move more seats overseas and reduce domestic seats. On a typical day they fly 4 non stops from MCO/LGA. By going back to 2 class of service they take almost 200 coach seats out of inventory.

Simple law of supply and demand.

Well it's still the same airplane but with the retrofit to a two-class service. That's DL's plan with the old song aircraft which is a good plan. This is how DL will compete with the likes of Jetblue out of New York. There is only about 75 seats taken out of inventory now.
Rex

 

[RainbowsMist]

LUT are cheapest of the fare basis codes. L Fare U Fare T Fare. Whenever you book a ticket you want to book on the lowest fare code and Delta's lowest is T. Each airline has their own fare basis codes for pricing.

I am showing a fare of $348.00 all in from RNO-MCO on those dates booked in T class.

Rex

I'm confuse (this is nothing new..lol)
When I booked my fares would it have said somewhere T class?
I just checked and our flight only shows sections 19-45. 159 seats in total with 96 seats still available. We are going BOS to MCO, Mar 9-23 and are on the 11:00 am flights. These flights have gone from 281 CAD to 692 CAD pp.

 

[Pugrpooh]

We're booked on Delta from Louisville to Orlando in August using frequent flyer miles. The flight, if you paid for it, was showing up at just under $300. My DD's friend is thinking about going with us, so I went to check prices yesterday and this morning to see what it would cost her, and the price was down to $188!

However, I can't get our particular flight to show up. I even tried going through Northwest's website to see if it would come up using our frequent flyer miles, which is how I booked ours, and when I choose our flight, an error message comes back saying they couldn't price it.

I'm going to call Delta to see what the deal is when I have enough time to wait on hold.

 

[rparmfamily]

I'm confuse (this is nothing new..lol)
When I booked my fares would it have said somewhere T class?
I just checked and our flight only shows sections 19-45. 159 seats in total with 96 seats still available. We are going BOS to MCO, Mar 9-23 and are on the 11:00 am flights. These flights have gone from 281 CAD to 692 CAD pp.

It would have stated it in the fare rules section. How did you book your ticket (which site)?? Each Fare Code has a number of seats per code and when that code is sold out then the next code is filled however airlines want you to pay full fare which is a Y Fare so you have to check the rules of the fare. See I don't know why there was such a huge jump in the fare today. Maybe they reloaded the fare's wrong into the system. I am showing 519 CAD on the DL flights you have but on NW I am showing 285 CAD booked in a L Fare. Same alliance however DL is nonstop.

Rex

 

[m4travel]

I am showing a fare of $348.00 all in from RNO-MCO on those dates booked in T class.

What's showing as available today on the Delta website is Q class, ranging from $459.69 (including taxes/fees) to $748.20 (incl t/f), depending upon the length of the layover in Atlanta.

There are some less expensive flights if you take the flight through Salt Lake City instead of Atlanta.

 

[rparmfamily]

We're booked on Delta from Louisville to Orlando in August using frequent flyer miles. The flight, if you paid for it, was showing up at just under $300. My DD's friend is thinking about going with us, so I went to check prices yesterday and this morning to see what it would cost her, and the price was down to $188!

However, I can't get our particular flight to show up. I even tried going through Northwest's website to see if it would come up using our frequent flyer miles, which is how I booked ours, and when I choose our flight, an error message comes back saying they couldn't price it.

I'm going to call Delta to see what the deal is when I have enough time to wait on hold.

Which airlines miles did you use??

 

[mamacatnv]

LUT are cheapest of the fare basis codes. L Fare U Fare T Fare. Whenever you book a ticket you want to book on the lowest fare code and Delta's lowest is T. Each airline has their own fare basis codes for pricing.

I am showing a fare of $348.00 all in from RNO-MCO on those dates booked in T class.

Rex

Are those the Salt Lake flights and from the Delta website? the lowest I see is a base of $360 plus taxes. I booked directly on the Website, I don't know if that makes a difference.

Not all the Delta flights went up but my specific flights did. We depart Reno at 8:30, layover in Atlanta for about an hour and land in MCO around 6:30 pm . For our return we depart MCO at 5:25 pm (yea more WDW time), layover in Atlanta for about an hour and arrive back in Reno at approx 9:45 p.m. There are a lot of other options: thru SLC, departing MCO earlier in the day and having a longer layover in Atlanta and they are cheaper. I just found it puzzling that our particular flights went up so much. I just looked, we are indeed "T" class, guess my gamble buying so early may have paid off.

Our flights worked out well time wise nothing too early or late and direct to Atlanta. Our layovers are minimal.

 

[rparmfamily]

What's showing as available today on the Delta website is Q class, ranging from $459.69 (including taxes/fees) to $748.20 (incl t/f), depending upon the length of the layover in Atlanta.

There are some less expensive flights if you take the flight through Salt Lake City instead of Atlanta.

Unfortunately DL's Website sometimes fails to show all of the available fares. With the software that's out there to check fares it is showing T class availability. I just pulled this as I was typing.

Fare Rules

Depart: Mon 25 Dec
Return: Tue 09 Jan
Total (w/taxes): $339 roundtrip
Out Base $150, half roundtrip
In Base $150, half roundtrip
Taxes $39
Out Created 05/08/2006
Out Class T7NBV
In Created 05/08/2006
In Class T7NBV


Rex

 

[rparmfamily]

Are those the Salt Lake flights and from the Delta website? the lowest I see is a base of $360 plus taxes. I booked directly on the Website, I don't know if that makes a difference.

Not all the Delta flights went up but my specific flights did. We depart Reno at 8:30, layover in Atlanta for about an hour and land in MCO around 6:30 pm . For our return we depart MCO at 5:25 pm (yea more WDW time), layover in Atlanta for about an hour and arrive back in Reno at approx 9:45 p.m. There are a lot of other options: thru SLC, departing MCO earlier in the day and having a longer layover in Atlanta and they are cheaper. I just found it puzzling that our particular flights went up so much. I just looked, we are indeed "T" class, guess my gamble buying so early may have paid off.

Our flights worked out well time wise nothing too early or late and direct to Atlanta. Our layovers are minimal.

You did just fine with that fair I think. I wouldn't expect much of a decrease if one. Also you got exactly what you wanted and looking at historical data you didn't get ripped off.

Rex

 

[mamacatnv]

Rex:

Next time I need airfare I'm calling you - I am only a recreational travelor and don't know much. I generally deal with SWA which is imo fairly user friendly.

 

[rparmfamily]

Rex:

Next time I need airfare I'm calling you - I am only a recreational travelor and don't know much. I generally deal with SWA which is imo fairly user friendly.

Just leave me a PM anytime you need help with your travel plans. I am a huge travel nut who loves flying cheap and travelling cheap.

Rex

 

[Chicago526]

Fares can jump for two reasons. One is just because the airline feels like it, the other is because inventory is drying up in the lower fare clases.

In Delta's cass, the three lowest fare classes are L, U and T (you can also sometimes get a decent deal in K class, but anyway...). If Delta only gives say, 10 seats in each of those classes, that's 30 seats out of a plane that can hold 150 or more, depending on the aircraft. Delta can put as many or as few seats in any fare class that they feel like.

And don't forget to look at the number of available seats on all of your flight segments. Your outound flight may be wide open, but your return flight could be booked solid and only have 3 seats left. That will increase your overall round-trip fare, because you're paying top dollar for the return leg. Same if you have a connection, one of the connecting flights could be quite full too, and that will skew your fare.

Because the OP's flight is 7 months away, I have a feeling they could just be playing around with the inventory, in otherwords, they may be re-distributing the seats between fare classes. While they do that, you can sometimes get goofy fares like $900 round-trip! Wait a day or two, they may come back down. If not, then I confess, I have no idea what they're up to!

The airlines don't need to justify flight cancelations or other schedule changes made in advance of travel. They only need to justify them (give a reason) if they make a change or cancel (or if a flight is delayed by at least 15 minutes) if they happen on the scheduled day of travel. If Delta wanted to just cancel the flight, they would have, they wouldn't bother jacking the price up.

 

[RainbowsMist]

It would have stated it in the fare rules section. How did you book your ticket (which site)?? Each Fare Code has a number of seats per code and when that code is sold out then the next code is filled however airlines want you to pay full fare which is a Y Fare so you have to check the rules of the fare. See I don't know why there was such a huge jump in the fare today. Maybe they reloaded the fare's wrong into the system. I am showing 519 CAD on the DL flights you have but on NW I am showing 285 CAD booked in a L Fare. Same alliance however DL is nonstop.

Rex

We booked directly at Delta.com. I just checked my tickets and indeed it does say T class in the confirmation section. Thanks for giving me the heads up.

Perhaps you could work your magic powers and find me a cheap flight from Calgary to MCO for Mar 9 - 22. Frontier had one for $503 however it's now up. I wish I had of bought it a few days ago.