Cheap Airfares and WWW
Friday 18 May 2007
If nothing else, the Internet ushered in the power for schmucks like me to ferret away cheap airfares. And when it comes to broadcast travelling, inexpensive rules. Or so it seems.
SkyBus, for example, offers 10 $10 seats on every flying. (Don't say the chief or I know how I'll be getting to India the next moment around. ) Then there was my mother who establish an inexpensive flying to Tel Aviv, but had to consume a day in Frankfurt and another day in Kiev as region of the deal. Therein lies the beauty of mining online airfares (or cheap flights).
But there's much than meets the heart when it comes to shopping online for that last-minute airfare, at least according to Volodymyr Bilotkach, an economist at the University of California, Irvine.
In a survey of ticket prices for 238 routes, I was disappointed to learn that Bilotkach found that the cheapest last-minute fares on Orbitz.com averaged $34.46 -- that's 8.5 percent less than comparable deals available through Southwest, my favorite airline. Jeez, after years of flying Southwest not just for its cheap seats but also for its tasty snacks, this was, well, devastating news.
Southwest sells most of its tickets online but does not make its fares available via major online travel agents such as Orbtiz or Travelocity, which aggregate tickets from major airlines and allow customers to compare prices.
"The research suggests that Southwest exploits its low-cost reputation with last-minute travelers who feel they don’t have time to shop around, even if it’s just a few extra minutes," said Bilotkach.
For his study entitled Reputation, Search Cost, and Airfares, Bilotkach compared flight costs at nine airports with substantial Southwest Airlines presence. He recorded quotes for fares between the same cities with the same travel dates, checking the fares one month in advance of the travel date and again at the last minute -- one or two days before the flight. With his research assistant Lisa Nguyen, Bilotkach got the fare quotes from Southwest and Orbitz at nearly the same time.
Overall, Southwest’s lowest advance purchase fares averaged 2.7 percent below the cheapest tickets found on Orbitz for a comparable flight. These findings support previous research showing that Southwest tends to offer better deals and helps keep prices lower among its competitors.
But for last-minute tickets, the median price was 8. 5 percentage more costly on Southwest. About half of the moment, a cheaper ticket could be establish through Orbitz.
"When it comes to last-minute fares, Southwest’s prices are about natural," said Bilotkach. "It’s significant for consumers to recall that just because an airline is known as the low-priced leader doesn’t intend it’s ever got the better trade -- particularly for last-minute flights."
The disagreement between Southwest’s fares and the cheapest menu establish on Orbitz was greatest for long-haul flights and too somewhat greater for North-South routes, such as a round-trip from Chicago to Florida.
[VIA DDJ`s Portal blog]
SkyBus, for example, offers 10 $10 seats on every flying. (Don't say the chief or I know how I'll be getting to India the next moment around. ) Then there was my mother who establish an inexpensive flying to Tel Aviv, but had to consume a day in Frankfurt and another day in Kiev as region of the deal. Therein lies the beauty of mining online airfares (or cheap flights).
But there's much than meets the heart when it comes to shopping online for that last-minute airfare, at least according to Volodymyr Bilotkach, an economist at the University of California, Irvine.
In a survey of ticket prices for 238 routes, I was disappointed to learn that Bilotkach found that the cheapest last-minute fares on Orbitz.com averaged $34.46 -- that's 8.5 percent less than comparable deals available through Southwest, my favorite airline. Jeez, after years of flying Southwest not just for its cheap seats but also for its tasty snacks, this was, well, devastating news.
Southwest sells most of its tickets online but does not make its fares available via major online travel agents such as Orbtiz or Travelocity, which aggregate tickets from major airlines and allow customers to compare prices.
"The research suggests that Southwest exploits its low-cost reputation with last-minute travelers who feel they don’t have time to shop around, even if it’s just a few extra minutes," said Bilotkach.
For his study entitled Reputation, Search Cost, and Airfares, Bilotkach compared flight costs at nine airports with substantial Southwest Airlines presence. He recorded quotes for fares between the same cities with the same travel dates, checking the fares one month in advance of the travel date and again at the last minute -- one or two days before the flight. With his research assistant Lisa Nguyen, Bilotkach got the fare quotes from Southwest and Orbitz at nearly the same time.
Overall, Southwest’s lowest advance purchase fares averaged 2.7 percent below the cheapest tickets found on Orbitz for a comparable flight. These findings support previous research showing that Southwest tends to offer better deals and helps keep prices lower among its competitors.
But for last-minute tickets, the median price was 8. 5 percentage more costly on Southwest. About half of the moment, a cheaper ticket could be establish through Orbitz.
"When it comes to last-minute fares, Southwest’s prices are about natural," said Bilotkach. "It’s significant for consumers to recall that just because an airline is known as the low-priced leader doesn’t intend it’s ever got the better trade -- particularly for last-minute flights."
The disagreement between Southwest’s fares and the cheapest menu establish on Orbitz was greatest for long-haul flights and too somewhat greater for North-South routes, such as a round-trip from Chicago to Florida.
[VIA DDJ`s Portal blog]
