New data verifies more airline for solo passengers – but it’s not as bad as you hear

Airlines make all kinds of attractive pricing decisions to maximize profits in the industry where it is very difficult to make money from flying.

Charging more for the last minute bookings and dynamic price seats based on demand are many ways of flight prices … and reducing more money from consumers.

Historically, airlines are also often charged for fare that do not include weekends or at least Saturday stops. The trend has deteriorated for years, but the goal for airlines remains the same when it comes to price: try to seize more money from business travelers who often have deeper pockets (or, at least, spending accounts).

Airlines are increasingly sophisticated in extracting money from recreational travelers as well. Consumers seem to be better prepared to spend more years, especially on premium products such as class or first-class seats. After all, Delta Air Lines says it sells More than three -quarters of the first class seats.

Now, there is a relatively new trend in the forefront: some airlines are wearing more for solo passengers than they booked several chairs. This is a trend Thrifty’s traveler First discovered last month. We found a similar example in our self -reporting Earlier this month, we saw a higher one -way flight for solo travelers than multipassenger bookings.

But does this happen all over the board?

With the help of a team at EdeFree Web Browser Extensions showing the price of points and stone awards on Google Flights, along with cash fare, we decided to dig a little deeper into points of points to better understand how the airline is currently performing prices. This is the data shown.

Related: How To Use Extended Roads To Compare Cash Rates And Awards In Google Flight

TPG and points

Points and TPGs analyze more than 3,800 individual flights for a day selected randomly (July 18) to study price differences. We choose from among the most popular domestic routes in the United States, including busy transcontinental routes such as New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. We also see shorter and popular flights like Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We consider flights from Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines in our search.

You can see a small picture of the search that we ran in the screenshot below.

In the airline’s defense, we actually found very few flights charged more for solo passengers.

Of the 3,817 combinations of routes, we only found 271 where there was a price conflict that caused solo passengers to pay more.

One example is a flight at American Airlines from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), where it costs $ 473 for a ticket compared to just $ 338 (each) for tickets booked with others. That’s the difference of $ 135.

However, in some of our searches (235, exactly), we truly find that solo travelers will pay less than two reservation tourists together.

Here’s a good example: American Airlines charges about $ 68 for couples (per ticket) from for Solo Travelers on a flight from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Orlando International Airport (MCO).

And most of our searches find that fares are the same for travelers and solo couples.

For example, solo travelers traveling from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Denver International Airport (DEN) will pay $ 216 … and so on will be a couple for every booked seat.

Delta told TPG right flight journalist Sean Cudahy earlier this month that the price tactic was not something new to the airline or industry, but the airline declined to comment again.

We reached out to America and United to see if they wanted to comment, and we would update this post if their carriers weighed.

Bottom Line

Although we find some data to support the idea that airlines sometimes charge more solo passengers for some flights than pairs, data also shows that sometimes the opposite is true: sometimes, couples have to pay more than solo passengers.

In the majority of cases, the price for a seat booked by a single traveler is the same as every seat booked by the couple. I feel confident that I don’t get Ripped as a solo traveler, but data shows it can be worth checking for prices for both one and two tourists when you are looking for. In many cases, it would make sense to book two separate bookings on behalf of two for a cheaper price.

If you find prices much higher for the trip you book for yourself, you can try to call the airline to ask if it will give you a lower price when booking two seats. You never know; The carrier may be open to selling your seat at a lower price, so it can’t hurt to ask.

Related Readings: