www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Airlines were deregulated, in the United States, in the late 70's. Airlines are theoretically allowed to set any pricing structure the want but market forces keep them all about the same.

You will from time to time read of an airlines raising their prices $10.00 across the board and then retract that raise 2 or 3 days later when the completion does not follow their lead.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Ah but at the wouldnt their be loop holes in the whole "free pricing". I mean, alot of people rely on airplanes as a means of travel for work. How would it be legal for an airline to say hell yeah lets make the price 10,000$ today.

Is their a fine line where the government has to protect the rights of the people?

They could do that the same way the oil companies can say lets raise the price of gasoline to $25.00 a gallon. I mean a lot of people rely on cars to travel to work.

The obvious answer is that at least one company would not go along and those that were charging outrageous prices would not get any business.

That is a very simplistic answer but to understand the real forces that drive price structure you would have to take some college level economic courses.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Nope, the government will only step in and set prices in industries where there is no competition (i.e. utility companies). This is to prevent monopolistic price gouging. In cases where there is competition, the government will stay away because we are, afterall, a free market economy. The existence of competing firms is the mechanism for keeping prices stable and competitive.

Like DD said, if some firms decide to raise prices, other firms may step up with lower prices and take away market share from them. However, if there are industry-wide cost increases, all firms in the industry will raise prices. In this case, there is nothing that consumers can do. This seems to be the case in the airline industry today.

Hmm interesting.

Thats kind of what I was saying yesterday in another post about the airlines. Every once and a while the prices will all jump dramatically, but within a short time, usually weeks a new airline will emerge providing low fares.

Obviously everyone begins using that airline, forcing the others to lower their prices back, and then everythings back to normal.

Realistically, at least on a domestic level I dont think airfares can really change THAT much, simply because of that.

I've found a great way get down to Cr is plan a few extra days before, after or sandwiched between a business trip. Many times I can add a trip to SJO in combination with a business flight for little or no extra money. Ex. EWR-ATL- ATL- SJO-SJO-EWR.

This works the best when flying in out of smaller regional airports. I've added a flight to SJO and it's lowered my fare before. I'm heading down this monday as part of a mult-way flight.

Cardtrickbitch!

Ive been eyeing a 520$CDN rate for the past 2 weeks. Just went to book it today, and behold its 650$ + across the board

I'm seeing ~$600 fares on Taca for May which is considered "off-season" in CR. That's pretty high considering that the fare last June was about $400. Grant it, even with the increase in fuel costs, I'm looking for something in the $450 range which is what I paid for SB weekend on Taca. I can't see myself paying more than $500. If this continues, this may be my last trip to CR.

No way! Once you've gotten a taste of it, you can't stay away.
Just brush up on your poker skills, and you may win enough (SB Weekend) to pay for your next trip...... NOT !!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

Yesss just grabbed one for 380US

...For what date(s)? Which Airline ???

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

JMac

$380US = apprx $456 Can. Hell of a price. Is that from Halifax to SJ?
Cheapest I can find out west is 950CAN

TACA

March 20-30th

Thats from JFK sorry

JMac,
Since you have so much idle time I suggest you do some studying on the economics of airfares and the structure behind them.

Here are some links to help you get started:
January 15, 2005 - A Change in the Way Airfares Are Calculated:
http://www.acte.org/resources/press_rel ... 1205.shtml

Up and Down Airfares
http://budgettravel.about.com/cs/airlin ... rfares.htm

Travel Library FAQs
http://www.travel-library.com/rtw/html/faq.html

Budget Basics 101 - Airfare Deals
http://budgettravel.about.com/cs/airlin ... rfares.htm

1999 Report to Congress on Airline Deregulaton: Changes in Airfares, Service Quality and Barriers to Entry.
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/rc99092.pdf