Becky and me will be returning to Bonaire in July and for fun I looked into the pricing difference between flying out of Austin (AUS) and Houston (IAH). To fly nonstop from Houston will run you $1150. The same flight from Austin will run you $869. It must be nice to be in a business where you can charge more for less. The only possible explanation I can think of is that Continental doesn't want people flying into Houston on another airline to catch the redeye to Bonaire.

Hi Jeff,

I just checked and on 4/27 you can do the IAH - BON for $623 RT. Of course I bought my tickets last month and I paid $900 for the same ticket. Talk about insanity. Of course I could change it for another $100 and get the difference in a voucher, but I don't fly that much so I can see giving those crooks another 100. I know thats the game but it sure is frustrating.

Well I an still look forward to a great trip in 3 months.

Mark

I checked this for the October timeframe that might be my next trip and it's "normal" then: $574 for IAH-BON and $663 for AUS-BON, via IAH.
So hard to figure what's screwed up in July.

I would be flying via Newark (from Boston area) but CO charges an extra $200 pp from BOS, plus incredibly long layovers in EWR in both directions!

So I decided some time ago that if we can stomach the red-eye, we'll just do the 4-hour drive to EWR and park the car there for the duration!

http://www.airportparkingreservations.com/

Thanks for the info guys. Our trip is through our LDS so the price difference is not an issue to us. Its just strange that you can fly cheaper with a connecting flight. Its the same flight from IAH-BON as it is from AUS-IAH-BON. Another possible explination I have come up with is that the layover or baggage handling is so bad at IAH that Continental has to drop the price to attract the business. That's one I can buy!

I have worked in the airline industry for 19 years and have yet to figure it all out and don't expect to any time soon. Situation normal...

This weird form of pricing is not just with Continental. I frequently fly United to California from the Washington DC area. If I terminate in LA or San Francisco and drive the 50 - 150 miles to my desired destinations (different cities), my round-trip airfare used to be about $700 for the non-stop flights. (I can get lower prices now for the non-stop flights, but these prices were typical of when I was doing the travel described last year.) However if I took the same exact non-stop flights to/from LAX and then took a puddle-jumper United Express flight to the destination city, the fare would drop by 1/3 to 1/2. Could never figure that one out either, but that is the way many airlines operate in the States. Airlines call it "hidden-city" pairs and for whatever reason make the prices lower. Works great if you live about midway between the cities although the extra flight can add time but not as much as you might think once you factor in traffic to the major airport and longer times required for check-in or luggage collection.)

We always pay the extra to fly in/out of Santa Barbara airport for just that reason Dr. You can't beat a small airport for the ease of checking in/out. No need to get here 3 hours early

Here is another Continental what the ???? For you. If you are going to book more than 2 people, do it 2 people at a time. For whatever reason if you put more than 2 in the number of seats box the price goes up by about $25 or so per person. In addition, if you start with more than 2 and try to do it 2 seats at a time you can get the first 2 at the "advertised" price but the next 2 will be higher. A traveling buddy of mine got stuck this way a couple of weeks ago. It makes no since but I have checked the price several times and if you put more than 2 people in, the price goes up.

I realize that the logic seems to be amiss with the conundrum of charging more per person for 3+ passengers than for 2 ;but, you have to keep in mind that the strategy for all of the airlines is to fill their planes. There are many people who consider the option of securing 3 seats in coach to travel comfortably with 2 people, especially on a redeye flight. This is often accomplished by booking 3 seats for two in coach rather than spending the money for 2 seats in buisness/first class. If the airline makes the cost comparable to the premium seats on a flight that needs to fill those seats they will create financial incentives for those passengers to book the premium seats. I suspect that the airline's computer models caught this when figuring the price. This seems especially true when you try different dates and the reality that you speak of is not true for all scheduled flights.
Patrick White

Try DEA, Nafl 270.00 (Nafl 200.00 if the Gov. would let them)to St Maarten from Cur or Bon and back, and a ticket from Bon->Cur->Bon starts at nafl 160.00 up to Nafl 220.00

The logic continues…and continues to amaze….
We travel to Bonaire about 3 times a year and recently have been stuck with really only one choice to get there – American. We live in southern New Jersey so fly out of Philadelphia. We used to fly Air Jamaica but concerns about their stability made us switch to American. Now we have the choice of Continental out of Newark – a little further drive and slightly more expensive to park but a DIRECT flight is very appealing. We booked our last trip in Feb on American because we had made the reservation prior to Continental’s flight announcement but we have our next 2 trips – Aug. & Nov. - booked on Continental. We paid $538 & $480 (w/o taxes). Now I am trying to book for next Feb. Continental’s price is $956 - way TOO HIGH!!! American out of Phila. is $478 – that is ½ of Continental. To make it even more interesting is that if I drive to Allentown, PA (about the same distance from my house as Newark) and fly Continental to Newark then to Bonaire the price is $612. (Rather a pain because we also have to add in connecting times) I like the idea of Continental’s direct flight but since this trip is in Feb. I also have concerns about Newark’s weather related cancellations and I can’t tell you how many times we have flown in or out of Atlantic City or Philadelphia when Newark has been bogged down. I also hate the loooooong layovers in San Juan that American treats us to. So…??? I have tried researching other options like flying into Aruba or Curacao but nothing competes with the prices I mentioned. There are 3 of us so the price does play in the decision process even though I would pay more for the convenience of Continental’s direct flight but not double. At the moment I am back to only one choice. I don't mind waiting a bit but how too long will only see American's prices go up. Why can’t things be simple?

I feel your pain Greg - we are looking to travel in Feb next year. I have tried to stop looking, as I think there is some correlation to the number of times people look at flights to the price inelasticity. (if you do peak, you will see there are very few seats taken on the flights...)

I remember booking my EWR-CUR flight (before the last year as soon as possible and the fares went down $50-75 a month or two later.

I'm about ready to give up on paying cash and use 70K FF miles/ticket. I've got lots of Continental miles and since I've been getting such cheap airfare over the past few years I haven't used them, maybe it's time.