Delta and United slapped in still another price hike yesterday, in the form of fuel surcharges.
Can the rest of the unindicted co-conspirators major airlines be far behind?
Here’s last night’s report, and running update on the fare increases (including fare increases and fuel-charge increases) this year, by Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com:
***
By Rick Seaney:
“Tonight at 8:00pm EDT, United Airlines matched the Delta Air Lines initiated airfare hike early in the day on the bulk of its route system – the hike – in the form of a fuel surcharge – is either an additional $10 or $40 roundtrip depending on the type of airfare and city pair.
“This leaves four remaining legacy airlines yet to match , including American, Continental, Northwest and US Airways.
“I have been asked to update our airfare increase timeline, noting whether the hike was base airfare or fuel surcharge related which I have done below. Effectively to an end-consumer there is not difference a hike of the base airfare or fuel surcharge as the two are combined and sales tax applied (not broken out separately on domestic airline tickets). That said there is a not so subtle difference for corporations that have negotiated airfare discounts – these discounts are only applied to the base airfare and not the fuel surcharge which reduces the overall effectiveness of these contracts.
“Our updated 2008 Increase Timeline follows:
1. January 3rd, initiated by United, $10 roundtrip, base airfare hike, successful (sticky)
2. January 11th, initiated by United, $30 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, unsuccessful
3. January 17th, initiated by American, $20 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, unsuccessful
4. January 24th, initiated by Continental, $20 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, successful (sticky)
5. February 22nd, initiated by United, $10 roundtrip, base airfare hike, successful (sticky)
6. February 28th, initiated by Delta, $10 roundtrip, base airfare hike, successful (sticky)
7. March 7th, initiated by United, $10 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, successful (sticky)
8. March 14th, initiated by United, $4-$50 roundtrip, base airfare hike, successful (sticky)
9. March 19th, initiated by Delta, $10 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, unsuccessful
10. March 27th, initiated by Delta, $10 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, unsuccessful
11. April 9th, initiated by United, $4-$30 roundtrip, base airfare hike, successful (sticky)
12. April 15th, initiated by United, $10-$20 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, successful (sticky)
13. April 24th, initiated by United, $4-$70 roundtrip, base airfare hike, successful (sticky)
14. April 28th, initiated by Delta, $10 and $40 roundtrip, fuel surcharge hike, pending
“Note that I have closed out the 13th hike of last week with a notation that it was widely successful.”
###
No comments:
Post a Comment