The Early Bird Gets The Worm

[BoeingBoy]

Delta was the first "Big 6" airline to adopt a rationalized fare structure - Simplifares. Time will tell what the revenue effects will be, but here's some effects so far....

On Jan. 6, Delta.com recorded more than $10 million in daily revenue for the first time since the Web site began selling tickets in 1996.

The same day, the number of tickets sold at Delta.com doubled from an average day.

At peak volume, Delta.com ticket sales totaled nearly $1 million per hour over a period of several hours.

On the day of the announcement, Delta said it saw a 300 percent increase in single-day traffic on its Web site. In the first five days after the launch, ticket sales on the Web site increased 60 percent over the same period a year ago.

All of these quotes from here.

Jim

[Edit by me] Some have said that we can't rationalize fares until we get our costs down. However, since the middle of October this company has gotten pretty much everything it's wanted from the employees - that's supposed to be the majority of what was needed to have a "competitive cost structure".

It appears that the rational fares train has left the station - we had better get on board or we may be run over.

 

[usairways_vote_NO]

At peak volume, Delta.com ticket sales totaled nearly $1 million per hour over a period of several hours.

[post="238455"][/post]​

Wow thats almost as fast as USAirways loses money

 

[Winglet]

Guess they'll have to make up the losses by selling even more tickets . . . . at a loss. Don't kid yourself. This is going to make U and UAL bleed even more, this time from a cut aorta instead of a femoral artery. I guess Lakefield will be after employee medical benefits next (since that's about all that's left), under the guise of making his so-called business plan work.

 

[whlinder]

So what's that, a $5-10 cost saving on each additional ticket sold over the web?

 

[nycbusdriver]

Wow thats almost as fast as USAirways loses money

[post="238456"][/post]​

Yeah, but the amount of money we lose on each individual sale we'll make up on volume!

:blink:

 

[mweiss]

Jim,

What this tells us is that DL is getting a good cash infusion. Good for them.

What remains unanswered is how much they'll have to pay to move those passengers. Will it be more or less than $10M/day?

 

[RowUnderDCA]

Will Delta's average fare sold be lower than U's on comparable routes? I'm not biting on my preferred route over Pres Day weekend. U is better.

 

[BoeingBoy]

What remains unanswered is how much they'll have to pay to move those passengers.

[post="238474"][/post]​

And that's the $64 million question....

Jim

 

[mweiss]

Hopefully it'll cost them less than that!

 

[ClueByFour]

The trick is to get the average fare to rise.

WN has $29 fares for long-term advance purchase.

They also have reasonable fares for walk up, 3/5/7 day advance purchase. By and large, absent LCC competition, the legacy carriers did not have reasonable fares in this category, specifically under 3 days out.

DL figures that if they can get 20 people to pay $399, it's better than 3 guys who pay $2k, and beats the crap out of filling those remaining seats with $29 fares.

This is why WN has led everybody else in "walk-up" and/or "full-fare" tickets for some time--it's because they are not a hold-up.

I don't think you will see the bottom end fares impacted by this too much.

 

[lostplanetairman]

I can also tell you that Delta's announcement of the program several days in advance of the actual announcement of the fares caused most FF's to not book. We all waited till we knew what was coming. So it's not a surprise that the site was inundated on the day of the announcement. Find out what the bookings were for the two prior days--I would not be surprised to see little action on those days!

 

[madders]

Is Delta losing money and on the verge of taking a walk in BK court ??

 

[CLT-Douglas]

I don't really see any big savings out of CLT naturally. To put this last minute no overnight a Saturday night ploy to a test, I looked at some flights on their site and on the US Airways site to leave this coming monday 01/17 and return Tuesday 01/18 from CLT to MIA. Total is $688.30 on Delta. US Airways is $676.90 and it's non-stop. How about CLT-EWR on the same dates, $926.80 on Delta, and $1,011.40 on US and it's non-stop. What about CLT-CVG on those dates? DL $436.90, US $436.90.

Now what about in advance how about February 4 over night a sat. and return on the 6.

Delta-CLT- MIA $264.30
US- CLT-MIA $232.90

Delta-CLT-EWR $372.80
US- CLT-EWR- $347.40

Delta- CLT-CVG $236.90
US- CLT-CVG $216.90

US Airways beats Deltas fares on all three of those routes. Personally, I think none of those flights are a great deal. I would flat out refuse to fly both airlines on those last minute fares listed above that leave this coming Monday.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

these are roundtrips.... I don't think those fares are too high... maybe the EWR a bit... but otherwise, ok by me

 

[CLT-Douglas]

I know they are round trips, most people fly round trips. What I'm pointing out is I don't see any big saving on Delta, atleast from CLT vs US yet. I thought I read some where their fares were going to be about 50% off for last minute fares. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't think so. I just put in the dates and and destination and hit enter. Paying $900.00+ for a flight to EWR with a connection in ATL four days from now is nothing to get excited about.