Facing unsavory headlines and scrutiny from the mainstream media, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have pulled back a controversial pricing structure that charged solo travelers more for their airline tickets on select routes. But is this a victory for consumers or a defeat?

Delta + United Now Punish All Travelers Equally

This week, major media outlets picked up on the fact that in some markets, airlines charged more per ticket when you bought one ticket versus two. This runs against the (incorrect) conventional wisdom that flights become more expensive only as they fill up.

These sorts of “fare deals” have been widely discussed for many months, but Thrifty Traveler wrote about them this week in a story that drew national headlines and now has resulted in Delta Air Lines and United Airlines pulling such fares without comment (American Airlines still has not made adjustments)

Thrifty Traveler is claiming victory over this rollback (“After Blowback, Delta & United Dump Fares That Punish Solo Travelers”), but One Mile At A Time makes a very good point:

“However, unless I’m missing something, exactly the inverse is true…airlines have simply eliminated the fares that offer discounts for those traveling as a party of two or more. So now everyone pays more, and perhaps the more accurate reality is “After Blowback, Delta & United Start Charging Everyone More.”

To which Kyle, who wrote the story, acknowledged his point, but still tried to argue that some transparency is better than none.

Ben pushed back and made a very reasonable point that “we need transparency” seems more like an empty political slogan than anything substantive.

Ben rightly notes that the lack of transparency, to the degree it can even be defined, is a two-edged sword.

Overall, I think Ben’s quite right here and calls for “transparency” strikes me as naive.

When “transparency” leads to higher airfares for everyone or award redemption sweet spots that are swiftly eliminated, consumers do not win…and no amount of self-righteous adulation can overcome that.

But I don’t discount Kyle’s point (a point I made yesterday) that there is little logic in charging less for two seats than one seat…and if this policy was kosher, why would airlines move so quickly to remove it? But has there ever been logic in airline pricing since deregulation?

It could well be that airlines hastily pulled the “discount” for multiple travelers on weekends because that was the easiest adjustment possible. But I believe there was another consideration.

The Legal Angle

In all my travels around the world, there is no country that even remotely approaches the USA in terms of being litigious.

It would not surprise me if class action lawyers are already circling like sharks, looking into how airlines could be sued over this practice.

We’ve had great public debates over fairness centering on equality versus equality and this whole tempest in a teapot over solo airfare, like our litigious culture, strikes me as a uniquely American problem (the country, not the airline).

Americans are generally an egalitarian people, and the idea that you paid more than me for the same thing just inherently rubs us the wrong way, even though you might have 200 people paying 200 different fares every time you step onto a flight.

People don’t like that they have to pay more for the same seat on the same flight at the same time just because they are traveling alone and not with a partner or group.

And of course that is fair enough, but it’s also a way to game the system…and those in the know have taken advantage of this “discount” offer (again, this “news” was not broken by Thrity Traveler, but has been discussed for months in forums like DansDeals and FlyerTalk).

Returning to the example I posed yesterday, while I’d love to pay $175 instead of $424 for my ticket from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh, if everyone is now charged $424, no one wins but the airline.

There’s a legal reason why Delta and United (and I suspect, shortly, American) have suspended this type of pricing: they got busted on what many will consider an unethical practice. If the airlines lowered the single fares to the couples pricing, it might demonstrate that they were unfairly targeting solo travelers and set themselves up for a massive class action lawsuit. Now airlines have a defense that they were simply allowing for discounts for “bulk buying,” but eliminated it, a more plausible argument.

I’m hopeful that we will see single passengers pay what couples pay and not the other way around, but the “quick fix” by the carriers is likely a strategic move aimed at eliminating any charge of unfair pricing (regardless of the legality of penalizing solo travelers or rewarding group travelers).

To be clear, I’m not saying any lawsuit would have merit, but could we see a lawsuit over this? Absolutely.

Bottom line: this is a developing issue and it’s far too early to claim victory or defeat.

CONCLUSION

Delta and United have pulled “discounts” for multiple travelers on select routes and I suspect American will do the same thing. If that means everyone pays more, consumers do not win…but the “quick fix” this weekend is more likely aimed at diminishing the chances that airlines can be charged with engaging in unfair business practices that could trigger class action lawsuits.

It will take more time to see whether consumers are hurt or harmed by this “exposé.”

image: Next Trip Network