So I looking at air line tickets and I noticed if you book a round trip from india to us it is cheaper than the exact same route from us to india. Why?
Short answer -- demand for seats. Airlines don't use a "cost+markup" fixed equation to price seats Probably have more business travelers fighting for those seats from the US-->India, and more tightwad price conscious travelers from India-->US.
Airline tickets are based on a lot of variables. You may find the exact same flight from U.S. To India more or less expensive than the exact same flight leaving a a day or two later. We wanted to upgrade our flight from Johannesburg to the U.S. to business class using our miles. One day it would have cost 90,000 miles per ticket. The very next day, it was 120,000 miles per ticket. One week later we actually got a refund of 30,000 miles per ticket. Airlines are screwy.
Assuming we're not exchanging POWs or something, it probably indicates there are more people coming from US to India than Vescey Versace; which implies higher demand and value for that particular departure route. Since a return flight is probably worth at least as much to a tourist as the initial route, that extra premium gets tackened on the backend as well.
I think people are missing the point here - regardless of where you start, the demand is going to be the same. The flight plan includes one trip from US -> India and one trip from India -> US. So regardless of where you start, you're taking up the same two seats for the airline - all that changes is the order. I think there are probably two answers here: 1. If you start in the US, it likely means you live here. We have more money than people in India, and therefore the airline can get away with charging more for the same flight. You see the same thing in domestic travel in other countries. When I went to Peru, you could get a much cheaper ticket from Lima to Cusco if you lived in Peru and used the domestic website than if you were an American and had to use the international website. Exact same flight and seats, but American tourists have more money so they can charge more. 2. You also want to look at the days you're travelling. If you're going Wednesday to Wednesday, then this isn't really a factor. But Friday might be more popular to go from US -> India than vice-versa as an example. So when you flip the starting point, it could simply be that tickets for those particular days are more or less expensive.
Actually the supply is the same; the demand differs. Airlines charge what the market allows them to get away with. Your point #1 explains 95% of the reason for the variance. In a general sense, the airline's goal is to sell as many U.S. origin tickets as possible and use the India origin tickets as incremental revenue filler.
It's more cheap to fly from India becaue their planes are very cheap, you probably have to fly with something like this: Or it will end like this:
As stated demand. competition for fares in certain areas can create pricing variables. They are pretty competitive in india for air to USA. In the old days the airlines would try a yield approach and charge as much as possible per person. This left empty seats. aka spoilage so they decided to try to fill the plane and charge everyone the same thing which is a load approach. This missed out on people willing to yield more. Then they went with revenue managing it from a fare mix approach and that is the main current format. They will price different pieces differently based on demand and optimizing the fare mix. Now they have moved to the network and even passenger name record level looking for the best way to maximize the revenue. Sometimes you will see it less to go Austin-Houston-Chicago vs Houston-Chicago Its all about demand per fare segment across the network.Network load etc. a determination of how many allotments or fares at a certain price are made ..then based on current bookings for xyz date, previous history, day of week, etc the allocations are being set and prices are moving accordingly. if a date is not booking guess what? price goes down.. etc
have you tried this site: http://www.airtreks.com/ its a nice starting point for what you are talking about
no matter how much these airlines raise ticket prices..it seems like they are always losing money. i was paying in the 200s non stop to pittsburgh..now its 400+!!!!
So, are you saying that if I wanna book a trip from Houston-Chicago during spring break (middle of March), I should probably wait closer to the day that I wanna leave to book a flight? I always thought it was cheaper to book way in advance...
I'm traveling around India now. Flew here from Houston in December for $497 roundtrip, taxes included. I actually flew to Lahore, Pakistan, which is only about 15 miles from the Indian border crossing. I found the fare here.
Well you can wait closer to that date and see what happens at benchmark periods like 30 days prior, 2 weeks prior etc. The problem is you do not know what current bookings are against last years booking for the same date , same time, same behavior. So you are basically shooting in the dark. If you have seen the price low enough that you like the price it might be best to go for it. I had a trip to europe for $500 each way set up and then the fare went away. I sat on it every day and the fare came back. Airlines allocate x number of seats at different fares. These are all anecdotal stories and the reality is you won't know what their current bookings are vs. demand. So if you find a low price and think its not going to get much lower,then you should go ahead and move on it.
