??? Airline Pricing ???

I have long known that airline pricing does not necessarily make a whole lot of sense. When I was living in Minnesota, I remember a story that the local tv station - KARE 11 - ran on the topic of how many prices there were for one flight. As I recall there were about 200 seats on the flight in question. Nevertheless from the time the seats went on sale there were about 1,000 different prices a customer could have paid!!!

My current responsibilities include traveling throughout the country. This past week I have been planning travel and booking flights. One trip this fall takes me to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Flying to the Twin Cities seems to cost a lot of money especially since Southwest does not fly there. However, it would seem a person could fly from St. Louis to the Twin Cities for a reasonable rate. The best rate that I was able to find on several websites for a non-stop flight was $670 and I would have had to pay for my luggage too!

Now I could have flown through Atlanta on one airline or through Dallas on another. In both cases the cost was about half the cost of flying non-stop! I also could have flown to Green Bay, WI (another stop on my trip) through Minneapolis for less. Yes, I would have flown on the same flight to MSP from STL on my way to Green Bay as I would have booked for the non-stop to MSP. The same was true on the return trip! No I cannot explain this madness - perhaps you are able to do so!

Well - I couldn't make heads or tails of the situation but I thought it ridiculous to pay these rates or inconvenience myself to fly all over the country to get where I needed to go. I booked a flight on Southwest to Chicago's Midway Airport (by the way - Midway has cleaned up the place and it is actually not a half bad airport to fly through) and I am driving through WI to get to MN. I saved $500 and the car is cheaper too. No - the gas will not even come close to erasing my savings since most of the driving I will be doing - I would have done anyway! Oh - I don't have to pay to take a checked bag either!

Maybe there is a reason that Southwest is doing pretty well while the other major airlines are having some major issues!