Airlines Stop “Punishing” Solo Travelers, And That’s Not Good

A couple of days ago, Thrifty Traveler broke news about how US airlines are sometimes charging more for solo travelers vs. those traveling as a group of two or more. Presumably this was another way to try to price discriminate between leisure travelers and business travelers, which is fair enough, since airlines use all kinds of methods to do that.

This ended up becoming national news. I suppose that’s for good reason, because it’s a practice many of us weren’t familiar with, and the media loves airline stories. In fairness, this wasn’t a terribly widespread practice, which is to say that these fares were only in a relatively small percentage of markets. Given the bad press airlines have received over this practice, we’re seeing airlines pull these fares. Is that good news, though?

Airlines update fares, now punish all travelers equally

Thrifty Traveler has declared victory, writing that “After Blowback, Delta & United Dump Fares That Punish Solo Travelers.” The claim is that “Delta and United both nixed the fares that hit solo travelers with significantly higher prices.”

However, unless I’m missing something, exactly the inverse is true — airlines have simply eliminated the fares that offer discounts for those traveling as a party of two or more. So now everyone pays more, and perhaps the more accurate reality is “After Blowback, Delta & United Start Charging Everyone More.”

Let’s look at the examples that were provided to show this price discrimination:

• A June 13 United flight from Chicago to Peoria cost $269 for one person or $181 per person for two or more people; now everyone pays $269
• An August 31 United flight from Chicago to Lexington cost $214 for one person, or $112 per person for two or more people; now everyone pays $214
• A September 10 Delta flight from Minneapolis to Miami cost $199 for one person or $118 per person for two more people; now everyone pays $199

Just to give a concrete example that will illustrate this, United has pulled its discounted pricing for solo travelers, while American hasn’t. If you want to travel from Chicago to Lexington on the flight mentioned above, both airlines now charge $214 for one traveler.

Meanwhile American now charges $215 total for two travelers, while United now charges $427 total for two travelers. Should we celebrate that change on United’s part?

Thrifty Traveler was absolutely right to bring up this pricing quirk, as I think it was worth pointing out. However, I wouldn’t consider airlines pulling cheaper fares for those traveling as a group of two or more to be something to celebrate, since now everyone pays more, and I think it’s important that we call out the current reality.

On the plus side, airline pricing is really fluid

As of now, I’d consider these developments to be negative. Over the course of a week we’ve gone from airlines secretly offering lower fares to those traveling as groups of two or more, to no longer offering a discount to those travelers, and charging everyone more.

The good news, however, is that airlines have seats to fill, and ultimately airline pricing isn’t determined based on airline costs and what margin they need to be profitable, but instead, based on what consumers are willing to pay.

So the airlines still have the same number of seats to fill, and over time, you can expect fares to reflect that. The thing is, I wouldn’t expect fares to get anywhere as close to the two-person pricing for solo travelers, at least on a regular basis, since not many people even knew about these fares.

Anyway, it’s funny how the internet can frame things. The cheaper pricing for two or more travelers was an awesome discovery, and if we had just said “cool, look at this opportunity to get a discount,” we’d have access to these fares.

But then there was outcry about discrimination and unfairness, without people realizing that airline pricing is literally “unfair” and discriminatory in every way, to segment out the market as much as possible… and that’s why so many low fares exist.

Bottom line

In recent days, there was widespread coverage of how some airlines were charging significantly lower fares to those traveling as groups of two or more. It was a fascinating discovery, though it was largely framed in a negative light.

Delta and United have now pulled these fares. But make no mistake, this isn’t a victory for travelers. Airlines haven’t eliminated fares that punish solo travelers, but instead, they’ve eliminated fares that offer discounts to those traveling as parties of two or more. Now everyone pays more.

What do you make of this airline pricing development?