It’s fairly common to search for airline tickets and find that ticket prices are cheaper for one seat than they are for two (or more). Airlines normally have a certain number of seats sorted into multiple fare classes (or buckets) and, once one fare class sells out, it moves on to the next, more expensive one. If there’s only one seat left in the cheaper fare class “A,” and you search for two seats, it will price both of them as the more expensive fare class “B.”
Or, that’s how it normally works.
Airlines know that single travelers are often business travelers, and business travelers are much less sensitive to price than families or those on leisure trips. So, there are times when you’ll find that searching for multiple tickets actually reduces the per-person price as compared to just looking for one.
It’s hard to know how common this is. While those traveling in groups might look at single or smaller group pricing to see if cheaper seats are available, I imagine that almost all single travelers wouldn’t think to do it. Why would you?
On this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air podcast, Nick and Greg talk about this phenomenon, and that they’ve sometimes found tickets that are $30-40 cheaper when looking for multiple passengers as compared to singles. That’s generally been my experience as well.
However, over the last couple of days, Thrifty Traveler has been finding much bigger discrepancies. On some domestic routes operated by American, Delta, and United, solo travelers are being charged significantly more per person than groups of 2+, occasionally up to double.
They kicked the whole thing off a couple of days ago when they noticed that Delta was charging ~45% more for single ticket traveling between Minneapolis and Miami in economy than it was for two people. In case you think that this might be a mistake, the fare rules for two people actually specify that there needs to be at least two people traveling in order to be eligible for the price:
Must be accompanied on all sectors in same compartment by at least 1 adult
That language wasn’t present in the fare rules for the more expensive, single passenger ticket.
After broadening their searches, Thrifty Traveler then found the same thing happening on both United and American flights as well.
United was charging ~40% more for a solo ticket between Chicago and Peoria, Ill than it was for 2+ passengers…and adding more passengers even unlocked a cheaper basic economy fare that wasn’t available when searching for a single seat. United had the exact same terminology on the lower-priced “group” fares that Delta did:
Must be accompanied on all sectors in same compartment by at least 1 adult.
The most significant examples were on American Airlines. For instance, there was a flight between Charlotte and Fort Myers, Florida, where two people were charged almost half the per-person price of one traveler. Again, liked United, there was also a cheaper basic economy fare listed for parties of 2+ that wasn’t available to a single person.
I decided to try and replicate a few of Thrifty Traveler’s searches using Google Flights and found the same thing across each airline. One of the routes they highlighted was Chicago to Lexington, KY. I looked at over 60 days of fares and, on each one, American was charging solo travelers over 50% more than they were charging groups. Here’s a random date in November for one person:
However, if you increase the group size to two people, the total price only goes up by $53 (for a per person price of $133.50):
As you can see, both Main Cabin and Main Cabin Plus are significantly cheaper for two people as well.
Like we’ve seen before, these fare quirks seem to only apply to certain routes, aren’t widespread and don’t affect international fares or award prices. On each of the examples mentioned above, the per passenger cost in miles was the same, regardless of if you searched for one or two tickets.
Quick Thoughts
I don’t spend a lot of time looking at domestic cash fares, but Thrifty Traveler does and I want to commend them for spending the time to dig into this. In the hour or so that I spent looking, there weren’t a ton of examples with such drastic pricing differences, but there are some. I don’t remember ever seeing single passenger “surcharges” that are this wide.
Airlines spend a lot of time and effort trying to maximize the return that they get off of every seat. They don’t want to sell you anything for one penny less than what you’re willing to pay and have historically gone to great lengths to try and use elite benefits to capture frequent business travelers using corporate cards to book flights. Now, it appears that they’re also playing around with simply charging them more for the same seat that they are happy to sell more cheaply to pairs or groups.
It will be very interesting to follow this and see if these kinds of pricing spreads become more widely used, or if they remain a relatively infrequent phenomenon. After all, domestic airlines are always known for transparency and putting the customer first…right?
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Sooo how much do you have weigh to qualify for a bulk rate? My butt might qualify even if the rest of me might need to sit on the wing.
Tim, I’m wondering if the same discrepancy exists for point redemptions? Has anyone looked into that? Thanks for posting the article.
like Hotels?
They didn’t charge more for solo. They were reducing price for travel in group though.
For example, for very long time already, Delta tickets has been around $400 one way for shortest routes a week out.
In 6/30 morning, they reduced those to about $200 for multiple travelers tickets.
Now, they are back at $400 regardless of solo or multiple after the blowback. Everyone loses.
Lucky has a different take. Airlines Stop “Punishing” Solo Travelers, And That’s Not Good – One Mile at a Time
It appears Delta and United have backed off. After Blowback, Delta & United Dump Fares That Punish Solo Travelers
Check your solo flights that you booked in the last few months, I just saved 61% by repricing an existing award flight on Delta!
On one hand, this seems like another example of grotesquely anti-consumer pricing strategies employed by major airlines. On the other hand, it’s pretty common for businesses to offer lower rates for larger purchases (e.g., buy two, get 50% off one). This news irks me, but I’m having trouble putting my finger on what distinguishes it from other bulk discounts.
The difference is that in BOGO promotions they are actively, eagerly trying to get you to purchase plural items. Here they are sneakily hoping you’ll buy just one and they’ll get you. Whatever BOGO product there is at the local grocery store, I can buy one or I can buy two. With air tickets if I’m only one person, how do I use two tickets on the same flight?
I’m of your latter opinion. Big shrug from me on this one. Single travelers are also more likely to grab a window or aisle seat, whereas a couple almost definitely takes a middle seat. There’s a difference in value there. I’m sure it’s easier to fill every seat on a plane when people buy in twos and threes.
More importantly, who cares about the reasons? If something is too expensive, then don’t buy it. People always choose outrage instead though.
Singles who pay more are supplementing other’s discount. MANY occasions when I look for a seat – there are only middle seats left as the couples have taken window and isle and talk over me the whole flight.
Given that airline pricing is largely dynamic and the fact that this issue wasn’t very widespread, I’m going to speculate that single tickets aren’t priced higher when there are only middle seats left.
At this point, they have their hands in the cookie jar & will try to walk it back. Then they will try again after several news cycles.
According to Thrifty Travele, Delta has already rolled it back. Others will follow soon, I guess. Next time someone says that the bloggers killed a sweet spot, point them to this issue. The bloggers saved solo traveler some serious cash too!
Called it.
Why this saved solo traveler?
At least I checked Delta on 5/29, 5/30 morning and 5/30 evening. They DID NOT change prices for solo. They reduced price for multiple during the time when that policy was in place only.
The correct statement should be: bloggers killed a sweet spot
This is why we hate legacy airlines and why discount carriers exist. The price is the price
This certainly seems strange, and would complicate airfare searches. Like I sometimes use sites like Skyscanner to find me the cheapest flights from one country to another. At this stage I’m not bothering to look for 2 tickets. Maybe I need to be?
So I should be booking my cash AA flights on the Alaska site? I already check there for points redemptions. Not all solo travelers are business travelers, and after reaching AA status a couple of years ago, maybe this will be an incentive to look into the Alaska loyalty program instead.
My bet is the airlines are going to have to roll back on this now that it’s been publicized.