Posted on 09/06/2017 9:47:50 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
On Monday evening, John Lyons, a 53-year-old father from West Hartford, Connecticut, purchased a one-way American Airlines ticket from Miami to Hartford for $159.20 for his daughter to get out of Hurricane Irmas path as the storm churns through the Caribbean.
On Tuesday, he was shocked at the spike in airfare prices.
I logged in and expected to see $160, and frankly if I had seen $260 I wouldnt have reacted. And I logged in and saw, $1,020, and I about had a heart attack, Lyons told Yahoo Finance in a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon.
Lyons, who describes himself as an amateur meteorologist, likes to post weather reports on West Hartfords Facebook page. Although Hurricane Irma poses no direct threat to where he lives, he has been following the storms developments.
Im seeing the direct hit on Florida. My daughter is down at the University of Miami, so I called her and said, Im going to bring you home. If worst comes to worst, we waste money, and you dont come home, and this thing misses you, and everything is fine. I logged in last night and saw $159.20 to be exact. I said you know what; this ticket is so cheap, Im just going to buy it.
The next day, he went back to look for a ticket for his daughters roommate, who is also a close family friends daughter. Shocked at the price increase, he said he even made sure that he didnt click first class by accident and he also verified that the flight had pretty much the same number of seats available compared to when he checked last night.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Airline companies are at the bottom of the bottom.
They’re even more corrupt than Microsoft.
“The article goes on to say Delta is price gouging also. “
The airlines must all be run by Rahm “Never let a Crisis Go to Waste” Emanuel.
Pi$$ on all of them, like the Congress, the country would be a lot better off if all the the US Airlines were given enemas, and all their management went down the drain.
“nobody is going to sell something at a loss.”
Maybe that’s true for some people. But during Harvey businesses were donating necessities at 100% loss. Depends on what’s in the hearts of certain people.
Right, but I guess the question becomes should a business be able to decide how it sells goods during an emergency situation, or should the government legislate regulations. Just because something is unethical doesn’t mean it should be illegal. Government trying to regulate “ethics” is why we are currently in much of the mess we are in today.
“I suggest raising prices during a crisis made strong economic sense.”
I believe most people thought that gouging on critical items and services was wrong. For other, nice-to-have, stuff, charge anything people will pay and that would make economic sense.
I’m not sure where air fares fall when it comes to critical or not. Probably not critical.
The store was Best Buy. The only water they normally sell is the single bottles at the front counters. Probably at 1.79 or 2 dollars. They technically didn’t raise the price of water just made it more convenient for customers to buy 24 at a time at the price they normally charge
“I logged in last night and saw $159.20 to be exact. I said you know what; this ticket is so cheap, Im just going to buy it.
So he wasn’t gouged. As a matter in fact he says his ticket was cheap meaning he paid less than he thought it was worth.
I have paid $1,000k for last minute tickets to places just 200 miles from me.
Ah the Bill Clinton defense,deny deny.
Totally agree. Get the government OUT. Our general laws, together with the majority of people (hopefully) doing the right thing in emergencies, SHOULD create a positive conclusion.
...... Over night they got together with 30 other people and pooled their money to charter a private plane to Lauderdale. It's going to be tight because there are now rumors that the Airport may already be shuttered.
We GLADLY paid a $100 pet deposit at Residence Inn in Texarkana. And the staff is tops!
American have become so used to government promises of indemnification against All Things Bad (including evil Republicans) that I wouldn't be surprised if the public expected all airlines to drop whatever they are doing and fly every Floridian out to safety - for free.
That is a really horrible position to be in. I hope they make it safely and if not find a safe place to shelter. As an aside, there’s a reason why you can get a good deal on a trip to the Caribbean during hurricane season.
As the departure date gets closer, the prices go up also.
In the industry, it’s called the “walk-up price”. Wait until THE DAY of departure, “walk up” to the ticket counter and buy a ticket...it’s horrifying.
You would prefer NO AVAILABLE FLIGHTS? Because that is what they would have if they didn't raise prices.
Eminent economists Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell agree with me. (OK, I agree with them)
Also another article by John Stossell.
http://walterewilliams.com/price-gouging/
http://www.unionleader.com/column/John-Stossel-Price-gouging-and-other-disaster-myths-08312017
... He and the others are gathering as much information and logging all events leading up to the refusals to even attempt extraction. The clincher is that Jetblue has flights flying right over the islands from Puerto Rico to FLA ... Heck they can even see the planes from the ground flying over head. Well ... Needless to say ... They and the others are going to file a class action lawsuit when they return to the mainland.
Did they donate all of their inventory or just enough to get people through the initial recovery phase?
No business is going to sell their products for a loss.
Price gouging isn't "gouging." It is natural supply and demand. When you raise the prices, more suppliers will enter that market and the price will decrease. It also prevents people from hoarding.
Good luck on getting a rental car or train. Although I would think that the rental car companies will be happy to get cars out of the storm’s path.
She should start biking or walking.
Should be mandatory reading there.
What surprises me is all the people who prep, stock up on stuff, etc in the event there is a shortage and an assumption of increased value have such a big problem with other people/companies pricing to match the market.
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