I love how the author thinks they've discovered something super secret, when they have in fact just learnt about "Group Discounts".
Author will lose their mind when they buy 10+ of the same thing from AliExpress.
I love how the author thinks they've discovered something super secret, when they have in fact just learnt about "Group Discounts".
Author will lose their mind when they buy 10+ of the same thing from AliExpress.
From the conclusion, they seem pretty confident that this is not "business as usual":
> Whenever this pricing strategy began, this is a massive change in how airlines set prices – and one that will likely catch many travelers off guard.
> Unlike shopping at retail stores or Costco, bulk discounts are unusual for airlines – at least not just for booking just two passengers instead of one. And these higher fares for one passenger are the opposite of what we typically see, where travelers booking for two passengers or more wind up getting charged more per person than a single passenger.
> Unlike shopping at retail stores or Costco, bulk discounts are unusual for airlines – at least not just for booking just two passengers instead of one. And these higher fares for one passenger are the opposite of what we typically see, where travelers booking for two passengers or more wind up getting charged more per person than a single passenger.
This isn't strictly true. Airlines have long offered bulk pricing through travel agencies and booking partners.
This was prevalent until the early 2000s, it is far less common today. Corporate discounts used to exist based on guaranteed minimum legs in some time period. This ended when airlines discovered only flying full planes made them more money, making bulk discounts more pain that they were worth.
It probably just depends on how full the flight is. If the plane is empty, there will be discounts for families, because they want to sell tickets, and families are price concious. Solo travellers usually are not.
If the plane is on a popular route, you'll pay through the nose, and there sure as hell won't be any group discounts. You'll pay almost full price for a two year old, because they know they'll fill the plane no matter what.
Airfare typically has group anti-discounts, where if you buy more tickets on a single reservation than tickets available at the lowest fare bucket, they’d sell you all the tickets at the higher fare instead of mixing fares
I bet most customers prefer that over finding out that they can't sit together.
That's my experience as well.
2 isn’t exactly what you’d think of when you think of “Group discounts”.
Buy one get one free
You've never seen a 2+1 free or 3+1 free pricing in stores? We have them frequently here in Europe on some things. This is same thing and tbh I am surprised it took so long.
And as a father of 2 small kids not complaining at all, having multiple kids these days is brutal also financially, any small thing that helps is very much appreciated.
> You've never seen a 2+1 free or 3+1 free pricing in stores?
Yes and as a solo person I can choose to buy those and take advantage of it in the same way a family can. Usually it's consumables like a 6 pack of bagels or something that might cost $5 which I'll 100% use.
This airline approach comes off much different, because as a solo traveler there is no benefit or reason why I would ever buy 2 tickets to save $80 per ticket since I wouldn't get any value from it and the cost of 2 tickets even with a discount will be greater than 1 non-discounted ticket.
Most airlines seem to also charge to pick your seats. I wonder if people who travel as a group end up paying that discount back to sit together.
If you regularly eat bagels for three persons you might also be able to take advantage of a second airplane seat all by yourself soon.
On a more serious note, group discounts for services are very common and usually not something you can take advantage of as a solo customer.
This is different than most group discounts because the airlines aren't advertising it or making a big deal that they're doing it.
They'll be devastated when their large group has a gratuity included at the celebration dinner, though.