If You’re Traveling Alone, Research Reveals You Probably Paid More For Your Flight Than Everyone Else
Absolutely everything about traveling is a scam.
IPGGutenbergUKLtd | Getty Images | Canva Pro At this point, basically everything in America is a scam, as the entire model of our economy is to find ever more wily ways to part people from more of their money. Airlines are basically the holy grail of this practice, and it seems like only a matter of time before they start installing coin-operated toilets on the planes.
For the time being, however, they seem to be refraining from charging additional fares for air to breathe or making a basic economy ticket a patch of floor to lie on in the cargo hold. And that might perhaps be because research has just revealed that they are scamming passengers in a way that would frankly be illegal in a functioning country.
Research reveals major airlines have been charging single travelers higher airfares.
That's according to travel website Thrifty Traveler, where editor Kyle Potter did a deep dive into pricing on the "big three" U.S. air carriers, Delta, United, and American Airlines, pricing pairs of seats versus single seats.
And while they didn't find it to be pervasive across every route and every flight, they found that solo travelers were frequently charged more, sometimes significantly more, both when purchasing Business Class tickets with corporate credit cards or just buying regular Economy tickets.
United, Delta, and American sometimes charged as much as twice the fare for solo travelers.
As a person who almost always travels solo, I have repeatedly banged my head against the wall in recent years, wondering why my friends always get such better airfare deals than I seem to. Well, now I know. Potter found that single fares are sometimes close to double a group fare.
For example, Potter priced a ticket from United's Chicago hub to Peoria, IL, and got a one-way fare of $269, which is in and of itself absurd since you can drive to Peoria from Chicago in about three hours. But that's a whole other subject.
When Potter changed the ticket to two people, however, not only did the price go down by $88, but an even lower fare class, Basic Economy, suddenly appeared out of nowhere, which was $118 cheaper.
Gustavo Fring | Pexels
American Airlines was even worse. When Potter priced a single ticket from Chicago, which is also an American hub, to Lexington, KY, it was $214. The lowest fare for a couple? $108, just $1 shy of half the price.
So is this legal, and why on Earth is it legal if it is? The answer to the first question is yes, so long as it's a clearly displayed fare rule. Potter found that while it took quite a bit of digging, the policies were spelled out online if you knew where to look. As for the second question? Well, the current political climate has made it easier for airlines to prioritize profit over passengers.
Delta and United have quit this practice after an uproar ensued. American has not.
Potter said he made repeated attempts to contact the airlines to get their side of the story, all of which went ignored. So he published his story without their input. That proved to be a huge mistake for the airlines.
Thrifty Traveler's research got the internet REALLY riled up. Commentary on Potter's reporting, nearly all of it furious, went viral on social media platforms, with many people calling out the airline industry for this unfair pricing scheme.
The uproar quickly inspired a reversal, from two of the three carriers, at least. The day after his report dropped, Potter posted an update sharing that Delta and United had both quietly dropped their higher solo and business fares in response to the backlash. American, however, didn't respond.
Potter pointed out that whether or not these fares will last is anyone's guess, but you can probably safely bet that once the anger online subsides, they'll revert to their ridiculous pricing schemes. After all, who's going to stop them?
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
