Curious

I fly AA a lot, and it's all personal, no corp. picking up the tab. The last few months, the prices on their website have been a LOT more than the exact same itineraries on Orbits or Travelocity.<BR><BR>Could it be possible, that with the internet the way it is, AA might be trying to phase out their reservation system as part of their cost cutting?<BR><BR>I have talked to some of their agents, and they have no clue as to the price difference.<BR><BR>As an example, in April, we are talking an open-jaw from Raleigh-Durham (rdu) to Phoenix(phx). Then flying from Las Vegas (las) back to rdu. I made this reservation in January. At that time the AA reservation price was about $200 total more than Orbits.<BR><BR>I just checked prices for my wife's trip to Reno (rno) in May to visit her son. The Orbitz site was $268 rt, the AA site for the EXACT same flights was $393!!!!!<BR><BR>I prefer to book with AA, but not at that price.<BR><BR>Any clues????<BR><BR>Curious

DavidDJ

I've noticed this recently as well as well as in the past. I agree with you that I would rather buy a ticket on the American Airlines website to get the bonus miles, but not when there a significantly higher price on AA.com as compared to other websites, as you have pointed out. Sometimes when looking for fares on the AA site they list an itinerary with two stops, for example, when I can get a ticket for the same price with only 1 stop. In the past 6 years that I have been flying American Airlines on a regular basis(about 4 times per year) I have bought one, maybe two tickects on AA.com. I can usually find them cheaper on Travelocity, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, etc.

PatC

I know whatyou mean. I was on the phone with American Airlines two days ago trying to book a flight from New York to Key West. They quoted me a (high) price. While I was on the phone with them, I was in expedia.com and a price of $100 less - for the same exact flights - appeared on my screen!<BR><BR>As an aside, why the heck are all the airline prices so high? I thought I'd get a better deal, what with people being afraid to fly, blah..blah..blah. The lowest quote I'm getting from NY to Key West is $360, but that's only if I take a 5:50am back!<BR><BR>Are the airlines digging deeper into the pockets of those still willing to travel?

AAFrequentFlyer

PatC,<BR>You are looking at the picture the wrong way. Airlines like any other business can't start giving the product away, just because it's not selling as well. If that was the case then if you think they are in trouble now, you would see them all disappear. Each seat has a break even point. The airlines know what that point is and will price their product accordingly. That means they will also look at the competition and total seats available to a certain destination. Let's take your home airport. Just about 2 weeks ago you could have flown to Tokyo for $409 plus about $90 in taxes from NY on AA. That's just about as much as your trip to Key West. Doesn't seem right? Well, the reasons are:<BR>Greater competition on the JFK-NRT route.<BR>Many, many more seats available on that route, combined as you said, less travelers, the airline wants to keep the planes flying for now, even if it just breaks even, so when travel picks-up again they will be ready to rock.<BR>So maybe the $409 is just enough to pay for all the expenses and they will take that for now.<BR>Now JFK-Key West, with transfers in MIA to American Eagle, a small commuter plane. Well as you said, less people are traveling, but still enough to fill the commuter plane every time it goes up, so AA looks at this as their profit flight, thus charges far more above the breaking point.<BR>So the distances have nothing to do with prices. Also, the airlines have cut anywhere from 15% to 35% in capacity just since 9/11, so there are far less seats available now, thus keeping the price at a level that the market will bear.<BR>Also, if you compare the prices from 30 years ago to now, they are at least 1/2 cheaper to fly anywhere in the world today. Don't forget, flying use to be for the upper classes, now it's available to just about everybody, but the employees still have to be paid, so don't expect them to have a fire sale everytime they slow down a bit. I remember my first trip to Europe in 78 on Lufthansa, which was almost $400, which occasionally you could still get the same price today in todays money, unbelievable. This is a whole different business from retailing.

PatC

Actually, American Airlines (their res center; not their website) just quoted me $249 (inc. all taxes and fees)on convenient flights for NY-Key West, Memorial Day Weekend. I'm grabbing it!<BR><BR>What a difference a day makes, huh?!

bill_n_ted

it is weird how flights will fluctuate like that, but i would just buy the cheaper ticket.... i have bought tickets over orbitz in the past, and i have had no problems.... in fact it worked just like i had bought it on the airline website... if you have found a good price on Orbitz, i say go ahead and get it...

voj125

I maybe very wrong, but I bet when you launch aa.com, the site recognizes your name and uses its built-in programmed logic to figure out that you've purchased tickets from them in the past. And therefore likely to do it again. Try to logout and inquire on the prices again as a guest user. See what happens.

flyer

I just got a great price for a June NY/LON ticket--$384.00 for a high season round-trip. In the past, I've been quoted fares up to $700.00 for the same time of year.