Weird picing on US Airways

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

I was torturing myself by looking to see if the prices of my flights to MCO went down (they haven't )

Anyway, I realized that for all flights from DCA to MCO (at least on my travel days):

Coach flexible: $803
First class flexible: $410

Why would coach by twice as much as first class? I double checked: I am comparing flexible to flexible. The first class even includes baggage, coach does not.

What am I missing?

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

It looks absolutely weird, but it doesn't have to be.

Sometimes the discounted fares for economy have been sold out, thus causing the price to go up. If at that point the discounted F fares are still available, you sometimes do see a cheaper F than economy.

Make any sense this way???


PS: to see if this is the cause yourself; take a look at the type of rate. Not just if it's flexible, but is it a W, N, L etc. Those letters are called farebuckets. The different types of fares. You can look up the fare buckets of each airline online. With that you can very easily see if you're quoted a more expensive farebucket in economy -thus the cheapest being sold out-, and if the quote for F is a discounted fare.

 

[Bell30012]

Snap it up before they realized that they screwed up.

 

[N365PA]

Lets say for sake of conversation we're flying on a plane with 100 Coach and 10 First Seats.

Coach: (most expensive to least)
20 seats are "Y" Fares, anytime anywhere/any changes $900
40 Seats are "G" or similiar fares, almost anytime/changes $400
40 Seats are "Q" or similiar, aka cheapo seats booked more than 14 days, lots of restrictions etc. $199

Same for First:
4 Full Fare $2500
4 Semi-Full Fare $1500
2 Cheap $600

As more seats book up, the price goes up. As the time comes closer to the flight, the price goes up...except right before the flight if there are still a bunch of seats, then fares will drop to try and raise passenger loads. There are alot more variables such as Codeshare, Black-Out Dates, frequent flier fares etc. etc. but thats it in a nutshell. (The fares above are just examples, its been 6 years since I worked for Delta and knew all the fares off-hand)

Sometimes its cheaper to buy a restricted first fare than an unrestricted fare coach. Im elite at Continental and when I fly for work, I always buy a semi0restricted coach fare, which automatically upgrades me to first class. I cant "Buy" a first class seat due to our policies, but I can spend the same money on an unrestricted coach seat (which the HR dept tells me is perfectly legit ) and automatically get upgraded...gotta love loopholes.

Clint

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Lets say for sake of conversation we're flying on a plane with 100 Coach and 10 First Seats.

Coach: (most expensive to least)
20 seats are "Y" Fares, anytime anywhere/any changes $900
40 Seats are "G" or similiar fares, almost anytime/changes $400
40 Seats are "Q" or similiar, aka cheapo seats booked more than 14 days, lots of restrictions etc. $199

Same for First:
4 Full Fare $2500
4 Semi-Full Fare $1500
2 Cheap $600

As more seats book up, the price goes up. As the time comes closer to the flight, the price goes up...except right before the flight if there are still a bunch of seats, then fares will drop to try and raise passenger loads. There are alot more variables such as Codeshare, Black-Out Dates, frequent flier fares etc. etc. but thats it in a nutshell. (The fares above are just examples, its been 6 years since I worked for Delta and knew all the fares off-hand)

Sometimes its cheaper to buy a restricted first fare than an unrestricted fare coach. Im elite at Continental and when I fly for work, I always buy a semi0restricted coach fare, which automatically upgrades me to first class. I cant "Buy" a first class seat due to our policies, but I can spend the same money on an unrestricted coach seat (which the HR dept tells me is perfectly legit ) and automatically get upgraded...gotta love loopholes.

Clint

Yes, but for USAirways, the UNRESTRICTIVE coach is more expensive than the UNRESTRICTIVE first class

 

[bumbershoot]

It just sometimes happens!

My brother travels sometimes for work, and he books his own. And he's had this happen to him...alas, he has to contact his VP really quick to get special permission, because they aren't to fly first class for work...he thinks it's silly to get permission when the prices are flipflopped like this, but he's gotta! (despite having to ask for permission, obviously he LOVES it when the prices do this, LOL)