Hi,
Say my Y price is 300. A competitor’s price is 375.
Both of us fill our flights quickly.
I decide to increase my price to say 370.
Should I do it slowly (in stages) or quickly (in one increase)?
Price increase doesn’t work that way
@rubiohiguey2000
I could go straight to 370, and AS wouldn’t react adversely to a big jump in one hit?
it will only apply to flights 72 hours after the change so all at once shouldn’t be any different than with stages…
if the Ors ratings are equal or yours is bigger then 370 is good, otherwise if competition has a better ORS then drop it down to 350-360… a $375 flight with better service is a better value than a $370 with worse service in the passengers eyes
@jetcruise0707
Thanks. I usually increment my fares, wait 48-72hrs to see if there is any adverse reaction, then I increment them again.
But then I looked at the market and saw a competitor with much higher prices, and they are still getting full bookings.
I understand they may have better value service.
I guess I’m trying to work out how to optimize my prices more quickly, or if that’s even possible.
The “fully booked” info for an other airlines flight provides zero indication to what you should do with your prices. This might be a different product and - especially hard to impossible to tell: connecting pax.
For example: By looking at some of my flights/routes one could get the impression that there’s plenty of bookings at high prices. In fact you might not get a single booking for a ticket price of 1$. No demand, but 100% connecting pax.
Oh, and then it depends on the number of seats/flight offered.
In fact I never ever look at other airlines prices or their bookings.
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How do you optimize your prices? The same way I do? Or do you have a quicker method?
In fact I usually don’t on a per flight base.
I usually set a price and keep it there. Might be I’ m losing a few million each week, but that’s not worth the time.
I’m experimenting with setting price per route. All aircraft on that route automatically end up with the same improved price. And all aircraft on that route will be adjusted in one go if competition heats up.
Makes sense if the vast majority of pax is direct.
My flights have 90-100% connecting pax, hence I only - if at all - change prices per hub.
Usually I control load factors (at fix set prices) by capacity.
I’ll have to try that sometime, AK.
Cheers
Actually AK looking on bookings can be telling. If you have a route to city X via hub Y (with hub Y having thousands of departures) and it constantly has 9/9 free seats on competitor’s flight on small aircraft, it means that city X most likely does not get even that many connecting pax, and maybe it’s not now the time to serve that city yet and better use resources elsewhere. Or on the other hand if it has a multiple full A321s daily, it means that there is sufficient traffic to the city X from “somewhere”.
especially in a domestic flight, this happens (I run an airline in the Philippines, and every single domestic gets full bookings from me or my competitor)
though I agree with the subsequent posts, connections may be strong - just check your competition’s Partners tab and see how many of them “could connect” onto his flight
Can be, but not necessarily is.
You’d not only need to check on how many seats/flight there are, but where that hub Y is situated in relation to your departure market, your hub and destination. Fully booked flights are even less telling.
In the end it’s easier and quicker to just schedule an airframe based on an educated guess and see how it goes. In 95% it develops as expected.