Booking an airplane ticket should, in theory, be a simple process. After all, thanks to the Internet, you can just go directly to your preferred airline’s websites or to one of dozens of comparison sites to check airfares from dozens of different carriers.
In reality, however, if you care about finding the best price, it’s incredibly complicated.
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There are tons of tips out there about exactly how far in advance you should book to get the best deals, about what days of the week you can score the cheapest seats on a flight, and even about which computers you should use when booking.
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Often, it’s also unclear how many of these tips and suggestions are just hype. And, now, however, you may have another potential thing to worry about when you book, as a bombshell new report suggests that the big three airlines — Delta, United, and American — may charge some passengers up to 70% more for the same flight.
Here are the details on who is potentially being charged more, so you can be prepared if the surcharge is one that may hit you on your next trip.
Some airlines have charging one group of customers more money.
Image source: Shutterstock
American Airlines, United, and Delta potentially imposing a big surcharge on some passengers
The report about the airline surcharge comes from a website called Thrifty Traveler, which is devoted to travel deals and news. It alleges that solo travelers are being charged significantly more for the same flight — sometimes up to 70% more — than those who are traveling in groups.
The report said this isn’t a universal phenomenon that applies to every single flight, but that it is a pattern that holds true across many routes.
It also provided examples, including an $88 discrepancy on fares from a flight from Chicago O’Hare to Peoria, Illinois, on which United quoted the price for a single passenger at $269 while the price for two or more passengers went down to $181.
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One possible reason for this trend, according to Scott Keyes, founder of the flight deal company Going, is that the airlines are targeting business travelers who often take solo flights and who may not be as price-conscious as others who are booking trips.
However, other experts question whether this is actually a trend at all or whether it is a new trend. They’ve pointed to the fact that dynamic pricing set by airlines adjusts for many different factors, and it’s not entirely clear that the discrepancies found in the Thrifty Traveler report are linked to the number of people booking.
Shopping around and comparing flight options remains the only way to get the best deal
Ultimately, with the dynamic pricing model so many airlines use, it will remain difficult to pinpoint exactly what you need to do to pay a rock-bottom fare.
It’s also likely that more research should be done into whether the big three airlines are, indeed, imposing these big surcharges on solo passengers as the report claims, or whether the report’s creators are assuming causation from correlation when there could be other factors at play.
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Still, with this new claim that solo travelers could be charged a lot more, it may be worth comparing flight costs with varying numbers of passengers when you conduct your search for a ticket for your next trip. That way, you can see if you are being hit with a surcharge that makes your trip costlier just because you are flying solo.
Related: American Airlines quietly tests surprising change to meals on some flights
