Seeing that a $50 fuel surcharge wouldn’t stick, airlines backed down from it, only for most of them to roll out a $40 surcharge. As of now, of the legacy carriers, only Northwest and US Airways have yet to match the increases. Based on how these things trend, airfare bloodhound Rick Seaney expects Northwest and US Airways to pricematch over the weekend. So, if you like flying either of those two airlines as opposed to the budget airlines, buy your tickets now.
United & Continental Match $40 Roundtrip Airline Ticket Fuel Surcharge [Rick Seaney]
PREVIOUSLY: Everyone But Northwest Matches $50 Fuel Surcharge
(Photo: Getty)
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Blame China.
Why are they calling it a surcharge and not just raising their rates? Is it because they want to keep the price of the flight down? Then counldn’t they just just charge $50 for any flight and tack on all kinds of surcharges?
I really don’t understand this. How is this not price-fixing? Airlines seem to do this all the time, is it not illegal?
I thought the airlines had major fuel reserves so as to hedge against fuel price fluctuations? Or is that an urban myth…
@schwnj: I think price fixing is allowed as long as they don’t get together ahead of time and plan it. Adjusting what you charge to match what you see your competitor(s) doing is legal though.
At least, that’s what I remember from the oligopoly part of my Econ 101 class.
this isn’t price-fixing, it’s price-leadership.
@qwickone: EBAY!! Damn them. Buy something for $25, then $20 shipping.. People made a mint off of that when others charged $40 with $5 shipping. Too many dumb people look at the price, don’t notice the “fees”
We need a law, that will force companies to give a price which includes ALL taxes and surcharges. Then it will be easy to compare prices from one company to another.
What they really should have done was keep it at $50 but offer 10 free iTunes downloads.
@chouchou: Also for us to figure out that everything is too damn overpriced!
@qwickone: Sort of, but the airlines always respond saying they’re all responding to the same market forces.