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Friday, April 12, 2013

Will you be paying more for flights?

With the recent mergers of the legacy airlines in the United States, there is concern that fewer airline options will mean higher fares for regular and leisure travelers.  In some cases, certain city pairs have seen a considerable increase in fares as a result of fewer planes flying.

Marketwatch highlights these changes in a new article.

I tend to be skeptical about whether mergers have any direct impact on fares, but there is something to be said about having fewer flight options to choose from.  If one airline pulls out due to a merger, that means less seats collectively on certain routes - which means a greater chance for higher fares. 

All of this means that there are fewer reward seats as well, since customers are paying the higher fares to get the available seats. 

The impact of the AA/US Airways merger has yet to be felt, but I'll be curious to see what happens with prices and flight options in the long run.  Hopefully it doesn't mean fewer chances to burn my miles!

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