discriminatory pricing on flights to Europe

[nong38]

It does seem that its more expensive to travel to Europe from Thailand than the other way round, perhaps Europe is seen as more of a destination than Thailand. I was told in the UK once that once you get to July ( you are in the UK holliday season that prices go up) my question to the travel operator of "how many UK familes holiday in Thailand then?" went unanswered.

High season in the UK is often low season here but you still get charged the premium, like heads I win and tails you lose.

With UK debit card I can book a flight from here to the UK and back through UK travel agents, but, even so I noticed that using the same dates it was more expensive from this end ( BKK ).

With all these tie-ups with Airlines into Star Alliance etc it doers make you wonder if they know what a cartel is?

[Madgee]

A lot of research and debate was done on another forum not long ago about this dilemma a short time ago.

The basic consensus resulted in the simple fact of 'Westerners' tend to book their flights well in advance using the so-called discounts available from many airlines who then can manage their bums on seats more efficiently, where as in Asia, travellers tend to book flights with short notice or at the last minute.

In fact, many international flights that originate from an Asian destination are hard to book satisfactorily several months ahead because itineraries frequently get changed, especially China Southern!

JMO, supply and demand will always have some influence on pricing policies.

[NanLaew]

Not sure about anyone buying tickets earlier than others; the premise is that there are more round-trip tourists coming FROM Europe on every airline and their fares are discounted to get the seats sold. That's competition. The airline makes up the fiscal shortfall by charging more for the passenger, tourist or otherwise buying a round-trip TO Europe. That's trying to make a profit.

Your recent booking experiment doesn't indicate anything different.

If they book 'round trip', the same number of passengers are travelling both ways.

The starting end makes no difference to any costs.

But it does if your are booking the un-discounted seats out of Bangkok that have not already been sold with a discount in (say) London.

[KittenKong]

But it does if your are booking the un-discounted seats out of Bangkok that have not already been sold with a discount in (say) London.

Even if you book months in advance tickets ex-Thailand are more expensive than last-minute tickets bought ex-Europe.

[yermanee]

In Europe pricing by airlines is closely scrutinized by the EU.

In Asia no such thing.

Except for that Airlines have the benefit of specialised and very complicated algorithms in place and know (up to a point) how much they can get away with for any specific route.

Nothing discriminatory about it, it's called profit enhancement.

Yermanee

Edited July 12, 2013 by yermanee

[NanLaew]

But it does if your are booking the un-discounted seats out of Bangkok that have not already been sold with a discount in (say) London.

Even if you book months in advance tickets ex-Thailand are more expensive than last-minute tickets bought ex-Europe.

What part of discounted ex- Europe ticket sales are subsidised by non-discounted ex- Bangkok ticket sales is so hard to comprehend here?

Edited July 12, 2013 by NanLaew

[KittenKong]

Even if you book months in advance tickets ex-Thailand are more expensive than last-minute tickets bought ex-Europe.

What part of discounted ex- Europe ticket sales are subsidised by non-discounted ex- Bangkok ticket sales is so hard to comprehend here?

The part that makes no sense.

[NanLaew]

Even if you book months in advance tickets ex-Thailand are more expensive than last-minute tickets bought ex-Europe.

What part of discounted ex- Europe ticket sales are subsidised by non-discounted ex- Bangkok ticket sales is so hard to comprehend here?

The part that makes no sense.

Airlines sell discounted round-trips from Europe TO Bangkok, ie. the whole ticket, both sectors are discounted. There's a higher volume of tourists going TO Bangkok on this incentivised travel. The loss leader.

Airlines then sell the unused seats (the seats that aren't occupied by the returning tourists that bought their round-trips in Europe) FROM Bangkok without any discount to make the profit. There's a small volume of Asian-based tourists going TO Europe and uneconomical to incentivize. The profit maker.

Therefore the airfare TO Bangkok that is bought in Europe is cheaper than the airfare TO Europe that is sold in Bangkok.

[Sophon]

It's simply a matter of the relatively few people booking ex Thailand being less price sensitive than the people booking ex Europe. People travelling from Thailand are generally either quite affluent, or they are going on a once in a lifetime trip and will be buying their ticket irrespective of the price. Whereas people travelling from Europe are taking annual (or more) holidays, and if the ticket price is not competitive they will be going to Florida or the Caribbean or somewhere else instead.

The airlines try to sell their tickets at the highest price the market can support, and you can hardly blame them for that. It's not like the airlines (with a few notable exceptions) are racking up record profits.

Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

Sophon

[lomatopo]

This topic comes up quite frequently here. There have been many, many threads covering the various factors influencing airline price differences on round trips issued ex-BKK and some/most ex-XXX.

It can be very challenging to compare the exact same travel dates for XXX-BKK-XXX and BKK-XXX-BKK, for reasons which should be obvious to even the dullest of minds, absent a time machine. There are also many, many, many variables re: specific city-pairs, airlines, seasons (low, shoulder, high, peak) and many, many fare buckets which make even a vague comparison challenging.

You can no longer purchase tickets SITO (Sold Inside, ticketed Outside) or SOTI (Sold Outside, Ticketed Inside).

Very generally speaking XXX-BKK-XXX will be less expensive than BKK-XXX-BKK due to supply/demand/competition. Any competition for BKK-XXX originates in BKK; people who are returning (BKK-XXX on a XXX-BKK-XXX ticket) have already "competed" for existing BKK-XXX inventory.

If you travel frequently between XXX and BKK it may be beneficial to string together XXX-BKK-XXX fares. Fly XXX-BKK, stay for 30 - 90 days, fly BKK-XXX, stay for a few days, start a new XXX-BKK trip, rinse/repeat.

Individuals really need to become familiar with the nuances of specific city-pairs: carriers, schedules, pricing, availability, then assign a minimum value for transport and then be prepared to purchase as soon as you see the target price. Again, very generally speaking, purchasing as early as your travel plans allow will yield the lowest price,given the nature of airline's inventory management algorithms and systems.

[KittenKong]

If you travel frequently between XXX and BKK it may be beneficial to string together XXX-BKK-XXX fares. Fly XXX-BKK, stay for 30 - 90 days, fly BKK-XXX, stay for a few days, start a new XXX-BKK trip, rinse/repeat.

I travel very infrequently. Once a year only in fact. But even so it is still much cheaper to get my tickets LHR/BKK/LHR even though I live in Thailand, and so that is what I do.

[KittenKong]

Airlines sell discounted round-trips from Europe TO Bangkok, ie. the whole ticket, both sectors are discounted. There's a higher volume of tourists going TO Bangkok on this incentivised travel. The loss leader.

Airlines then sell the unused seats (the seats that aren't occupied by the returning tourists that bought their round-trips in Europe) FROM Bangkok without any discount to make the profit. There's a small volume of Asian-based tourists going TO Europe and uneconomical to incentivize. The profit maker.

Therefore the airfare TO Bangkok that is bought in Europe is cheaper than the airfare TO Europe that is sold in Bangkok.

Believe that if you will.

[NanLaew]

Airlines sell discounted round-trips from Europe TO Bangkok, ie. the whole ticket, both sectors are discounted. There's a higher volume of tourists going TO Bangkok on this incentivised travel. The loss leader.

Airlines then sell the unused seats (the seats that aren't occupied by the returning tourists that bought their round-trips in Europe) FROM Bangkok without any discount to make the profit. There's a small volume of Asian-based tourists going TO Europe and uneconomical to incentivize. The profit maker.

Therefore the airfare TO Bangkok that is bought in Europe is cheaper than the airfare TO Europe that is sold in Bangkok.

Believe that if you will.

Don't take my word for it but in lieu of the OP's premise of all airlines being 'discriminatory' just for the hell of it, it just seems more logical.

I would be interested hearing your reasoning on why it is this way?

[Lancashirelad]

Wouldn't life be easy if airlines simply calculated the cost of operating an aircraft between point A and point B. Divide by the number of seats available = op cost per seat. Add departure taxes and a fair and reasonable profit = cost of the flight per seat whether you book 6 months in advance or 6 hours.

First come, first served.

Business class 1.5 x base fare. 1st C 2 x base fare.

simples

Edited July 14, 2013 by Lancashirelad

[Ricardo]

Maybe "simples", but you would still need to estimate the load-factor you're going to get, the future-cost of fuel & all the other cost-elements, exchange-rate changes and so-on, up to a year ahead.

Hedging fuel-contracts & currency-exchange & fixed-price contracts with suppliers helps, but doesn't entirely eliminate the variations, .

Managing a fleet so that down-time for scheduled-maintenance, and matching aircraft-types with different configurations/capacities optimally-matches seasonal-demand, also complicates things just a little bit.