New data confirms airlines charging more for solo passengers — but it's not as bad as you've heard
Airlines make all kinds of interesting pricing decisions in order to maximize profits in an industry where it's very hard to make money from flying.
Charging more for last-minute bookings and dynamically pricing seats based on demand are among the many ways airlines price flights ... and squeeze more money from consumers.
Historically, airlines also frequently charged more for fares that didn't include a weekend or at least a Saturday stopover. That trend has eased over the years, but the goal for airlines remains the same when it comes to prices: Try to wring more money from business travelers who often have deeper pockets (or, at least, expense accounts).
Airlines are getting more sophisticated at extracting money from leisure travelers, too. Consumers have seemingly been more willing to spend more in recent years, especially on premium products like extra-legroom or first-class seats. After all, Delta Air Lines said it is selling more than three-quarters of its first-class seats.
Now, there is a relatively new trend at the forefront: Some airlines are charging more for solo passengers than those booking multiple seats. It's a trend Thrifty Traveler first discovered last month. We found similar instances in our own reporting earlier this month, during which we noticed one-way flights priced higher for solo travelers than for multipassenger bookings.
But is this the case across the board?
With help from the team at Points Path, a free web browser extension that shows points and miles award prices in Google Flights, along with cash fares, we decided to dig a bit deeper into Points Path data to better understand how airlines are currently pricing flights. Here's what the data showed.
Related: How to use the Points Path extension to compare cash and award rates in Google Flights
TPG and Points Path
Points Path and TPG analyzed more than 3,800 individual flights for a day selected at random (July 18) to study the pricing differences. We chose from among the most popular domestic routes in the U.S., including busy transcontinental routes like New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. We also looked at shorter, popular flights like Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We considered flights from Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines in our searches.
You can see a tiny snapshot of the searches we ran in the screenshot below.
In the airlines' defense, we actually found very few flights that charged more for solo passengers.
Out of 3,817 route combinations, we only found 271 where there was a price discrepancy resulting in solo passengers paying more.
One example is a flight on American Airlines from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), where it cost $473 for one ticket versus just $338 (each) for a ticket booked with another person. That's a $135 difference.
However, in some of our searches (235, to be exact), we actually found that solo travelers would pay less than two travelers booking together.
Here's a good example: American Airlines is charging about $68 more for a couple (per ticket) than for a solo traveler on a flight from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Orlando International Airport (MCO).
And the vast majority of our searches found that fares were identical for solo travelers and couples.
For instance, a solo traveler on a trip from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Denver International Airport (DEN) would pay $216 ... and so would a couple for each seat booked.
Delta told TPG's Senior Aviation Reporter Sean Cudahy earlier this month that such pricing tactics are not new to the airline or the industry, but the airline declined to comment further.
We reached out to American and United to see if they wanted to comment, and we will update this post if those carriers weigh in.
Bottom line
While we did find some data to support the idea that airlines sometimes charge solo passengers more for some flights than couples, the data also shows that sometimes the opposite is true: Occasionally, couples have to pay more than solo passengers.
In the vast majority of cases, the price for a seat booked by a single traveler is the same as each seat booked by a pair. I feel fairly reassured that I'm not getting ripped off as a solo traveler, but the data does show it can be worth checking the price for both one and two travelers when you search. In many cases, it will make sense to book two separate reservations for parties of two to get a cheaper price.
If you find the price is much higher for a trip you're booking for just yourself, you can try calling the airline to ask if it will give you the lower price when booking two seats. You never know; the carrier may be open to selling you the seat at the lower price, so it can't hurt to ask.
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