I have noticed an increase in flight prices for United in the past year or so. American hasn't seemed to increase in price - or at least has not increased at the same pace. Not a few hundred dollars - but thousands. (to the extent it matters, I usually search/fly international south of the border)

Example: a search recently (same locations/dates):
United: Economy: $1971; Economy (fully refundable): $4,146; Business: $5,179 - this flight use to be generally consistently less than $2,000
American: Main: $1,161; Premium: $1,766 (business refund to credit; +90 for refund to card)

Anybody have insight into whether this is temporary in any manner? Is it my unlucky searches? imagination? Were there some bad gas prices when they got locked in to a contract or something similar? increase in budget to covid enforcement/DEI/cross-dressing dept?

Bonus:
Due to the wonderful world of flight pricing, can fly out of LCH and connect to same flight in IAH for less (sometimes/usually it seems).

Example: same flight as above for United out of LCH (and connecting to same flight in IAH)
Economy: $1,338; Economy (FR): $5,666; Business: $3,167

I don't know why you would not post the locations.

txags92 said:

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fredfredunderscorefred said:

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I have noticed an increase in flight prices for United in the past year or so. American hasn't seemed to increase in price - or at least has not increased at the same pace. Not a few hundred dollars - but thousands. (to the extent it matters, I usually search/fly international south of the border)

Example: a search recently (same locations/dates):
United: Economy: $1971; Economy (fully refundable): $4,146; Business: $5,179 - this flight use to be generally consistently less than $2,000
American: Main: $1,161; Premium: $1,766 (business refund to credit; +90 for refund to card)

Anybody have insight into whether this is temporary in any manner? Is it my unlucky searches? imagination? Were there some bad gas prices when they got locked in to a contract or something similar? increase in budget to covid enforcement/DEI/cross-dressing dept?

Bonus:
Due to the wonderful world of flight pricing, can fly out of LCH and connect to same flight in IAH for less (sometimes/usually it seems).

Example: same flight as above for United out of LCH (and connecting to same flight in IAH)
Economy: $1,338; Economy (FR): $5,666; Business: $3,167

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United has always done that with their routes where they have a non-stop from Houston that no other carrier matches them on. I would bet you that there was some other carrier flying a non-stop out of Houston that discontinued their route within the last year. Without the direct competition for the non-stop passengers, United has jacked prices up.

Plenty of people will willingly pay significantly more for a non-stop instead of having to change planes and risk getting luggage lost. The reason the LCH fare is cheaper than the one out of Houston, even though it is the same flight from Houston onward is that they are competing against other carriers with one-stop service from LCH. So if somebody in LCH is going to fly to that destination, they don't have a non-stop option. If all of the options are one-stop, then most are going to pick the cheapest.

I get the same thing flying out of Austin on United. Most of the flights I take are cheaper out of Austin than IAH, even though I am connecting to the same plane through IAH.

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thanks; I have some credits with United and don't seem to have a good chance to justify using them because of the fare difference between UA and AA. I was 1K with UA, but since the apparent flight increases I have flown with them only once in the past year, and that was a one-way only because of that weather fiasco that hit NYC during UN week. UA just seems to be consistently higher and not by just a little, at least for business.

interesting about the non-stop; even though some of the flights have layovers, it might have to do with UA or AA hubs. good insight.

fredfredunderscorefred said:

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txags92 said:

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fredfredunderscorefred said:

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I have noticed an increase in flight prices for United in the past year or so. American hasn't seemed to increase in price - or at least has not increased at the same pace. Not a few hundred dollars - but thousands. (to the extent it matters, I usually search/fly international south of the border)

Example: a search recently (same locations/dates):
United: Economy: $1971; Economy (fully refundable): $4,146; Business: $5,179 - this flight use to be generally consistently less than $2,000
American: Main: $1,161; Premium: $1,766 (business refund to credit; +90 for refund to card)

Anybody have insight into whether this is temporary in any manner? Is it my unlucky searches? imagination? Were there some bad gas prices when they got locked in to a contract or something similar? increase in budget to covid enforcement/DEI/cross-dressing dept?

Bonus:
Due to the wonderful world of flight pricing, can fly out of LCH and connect to same flight in IAH for less (sometimes/usually it seems).

Example: same flight as above for United out of LCH (and connecting to same flight in IAH)
Economy: $1,338; Economy (FR): $5,666; Business: $3,167

---

United has always done that with their routes where they have a non-stop from Houston that no other carrier matches them on. I would bet you that there was some other carrier flying a non-stop out of Houston that discontinued their route within the last year. Without the direct competition for the non-stop passengers, United has jacked prices up.

Plenty of people will willingly pay significantly more for a non-stop instead of having to change planes and risk getting luggage lost. The reason the LCH fare is cheaper than the one out of Houston, even though it is the same flight from Houston onward is that they are competing against other carriers with one-stop service from LCH. So if somebody in LCH is going to fly to that destination, they don't have a non-stop option. If all of the options are one-stop, then most are going to pick the cheapest.

I get the same thing flying out of Austin on United. Most of the flights I take are cheaper out of Austin than IAH, even though I am connecting to the same plane through IAH.

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thanks; I have some credits with United and don't seem to have a good chance to justify using them because of the fare difference between UA and AA. I was 1K with UA, but since the apparent flight increases I have flown with them only once in the past year, and that was a one-way only because of that weather fiasco that hit NYC during UN week. UA just seems to be consistently higher and not by just a little, at least for business.

interesting about the non-stop; even though some of the flights have layovers, it might have to do with UA or AA hubs. good insight.

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Yep. United works very hard to establish non-competitive non-stop routes from their hubs and will aggressively price other airlines out of the market if they have to. I remember in the late 90s or early 00s when Sol airlines started offering flights from IAH to Roatan and other Central American locations. United and Taca immediately dropped their prices to under $300 to try to make it impossible for Sol to make a profit competing against them. We flew to Roatan a couple of times for $129-149 RT during that time. As soon as Sol gave up and stopped flying to Houston, United and Taca both raised their prices to $650+ RT.

Even connecting though IAH versus DFW or Hobby from a regional airport, United is always more expensive by 250 to 500, destination doesn't matter. United is simply always more expensive.

The Chicken Ranch said:

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Even connecting though IAH versus DFW or Hobby from a regional airport, United is always more expensive by 250 to 500, destination doesn't matter. United is simply always more expensive.

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And almost never worth it. Delta's airplanes, technology, service, partner airlines, and on-time performance are ALWAYS better.

United's prices have been wild since travel got back to normal after covid.

I live in Bogota and it's consistently $1,200-$1,400 for the 5 hour round-trip to Houston. I've been keeping an eye out for Thanksgiving flights to attend the t.u. game and United wants over $2,000.

It's literally cheaper for me to fly to Europe or to SE Asia on Singapore Airlines than it is to fly between Bogota and Houston.

TXCityAggie said:

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United's prices have been wild since travel got back to normal after covid.

I live in Bogota and it's consistently $1,200-$1,400 for the 5 hour round-trip to Houston. I've been keeping an eye out for Thanksgiving flights to attend the t.u. game and United wants over $2,000.

It's literally cheaper for me to fly to Europe or to SE Asia on Singapore Airlines than it is to fly between Bogota and Houston.

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What days are you looking at? Just looked on Google flights and it is showing $991 RT sat to sat around Thanksgiving.

txags92 said:

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TXCityAggie said:

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United's prices have been wild since travel got back to normal after covid.

I live in Bogota and it's consistently $1,200-$1,400 for the 5 hour round-trip to Houston. I've been keeping an eye out for Thanksgiving flights to attend the t.u. game and United wants over $2,000.

It's literally cheaper for me to fly to Europe or to SE Asia on Singapore Airlines than it is to fly between Bogota and Houston.

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What days are you looking at? Just looked on Google flights and it is showing $991 RT sat to sat around Thanksgiving.

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I have to fly in Wednesday night/Thursday morning and fly back Sunday night. There are cheaper options with other airlines but United has the only direct flight. The others require a layover that would lead to 10-12 hour travel times.

I stopped flying united this year. I mainly fly to MAF and they are 2-3x southwest. Takes me a little longer to get to hobby but I can't justify the price and flying a 737 is more pleasant than an emb-175.

TXCityAggie said:

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United's prices have been wild since travel got back to normal after covid.

I live in Bogota and it's consistently $1,200-$1,400 for the 5 hour round-trip to Houston. I've been keeping an eye out for Thanksgiving flights to attend the t.u. game and United wants over $2,000.

It's literally cheaper for me to fly to Europe or to SE Asia on Singapore Airlines than it is to fly between Bogota and Houston.

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the bogota flight is one I search sometimes; and I see the same thing - can fly first class to Paris on Air France from Bogota for $2-3k less than flying direct to Houston. I was hoping this may be a temporary thing, but I didn't start traveling regularly until right before covid, and it appears I probably just got lucky with covid flight prices (?), and UA being higher is more normal than temporary.

Yep...it sucks. Unfortunately, there just isn't any other option that doesn't involve long travel days. Avianca sometimes has reasonable prices connecting through San Salvador, but I've been screwed so many times by that airline that I refuse to fly them anymore.

TXCityAggie said:

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Yep...it sucks. Unfortunately, there just isn't any other option that doesn't involve long travel days. Avianca sometimes has reasonable prices connecting through San Salvador, but I've been screwed so many times by that airline that I refuse to fly them anymore.

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I have sometimes found COPA cheaper than UA (even though it is the exact same flight connecting through PTY)

edit: as to Avianca, I once recommended to someone in Miami to instead use viva air (when it existed) or driving to FLL and flying spirit instead of Avianca.