How do some airlines offer cheap ticket prices?

Mar 30

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I’m from California and I’ve had some friends go on a trip to New York and apparently it was $50 one-way on Virgin Airlines .. maybe it was a promotion or deal, but even still that’s a really really good price. I think Southwest does $190 one-way for that same trip..

I was wondering, how do some airlines (like JetBlue or Virgin airlines) offer cheap ticket prices? Is the quality of the service bad or something? There’s gotta be a catch.

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Comments

Edward Bongshanks

March 30th, 2010 at 4:04 PM

It’s the service. You just don’t get all the extra crap like food/drinks for free. Oh, and Southwest also stock piled a bunch of fuel about a decade ago when it was really cheap. So they are paying alot less to fuel their planes than other airlines. Mostly it’s the service though. It’s not bad, just less amenities.
pete

March 30th, 2010 at 4:26 PM

Basically, yes the quality is shocking. Google “no-frills airlines” I am from the UK, here EasyJet is the cheap airline – they cram loads of people into tiny seats with no leg room, and sometimes there are extra charges, for hold baggage and airport taxes etc.
longliveabcdefg

March 30th, 2010 at 5:10 PM

Once you get the ticket, regardless of how much, you get the same service during flight. With a cheap ticket, you cannot change the itinerary, and you cannot choose your seat and get assigned the most unpopular seats. When airlines know they would not be able to fill up all the seats in a flight at a profit, they might offer big discount to attract unlikely passengers as a promotion, same with every other business. Once in a while you find big bargains with cars, electronics, stuff at the grocery…. There is no catch here, the cheap prices only happen for a very short period, it’s a promotion of its products the air tickets.
Neil

March 30th, 2010 at 5:13 PM

Actually, in terms of amenities, JetBlue and Virgin have it all over the major carriers. $50 is what’s known as a loss-leader. If you can get it, grab it!
potatochip

March 30th, 2010 at 5:17 PM

Virgin America and JetBlue have better service than many of the other US airlines. I think sometimes the airlines will have a promotional fare especially if they are opening up a new route. Sometimes airlines will just have a fare sale to encourage people to travel.

If there is a catch to the cheap ticket, it may be that there are only a certain number of them on each flight.
CARLOS O

March 30th, 2010 at 6:14 PM

Please check:
Tips:
a- use flexible dates
b- use alternative airports

http://www.yapta.com/

http://www.cfares.com/

http://www.kayak.com/

http://www.orbitz.com/

http://www.cheaptickets.com/

http://www.expedia.com/default.asp

http://www.farecompare.com/

http://www.mobissimo.com/search_airfare.php

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

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