Great Western Coffee Shop

We all know that advance fares of the railway prohibit a break of journey and can often be cheaper than shorter journeys on the exact same train, but turns out it applies to the airline industry too.

Let's look at an example.  From London Heathrow (LHR) to Gran Canaria (LPA) on 22nd January 2015.

Iberia are quoting this itinerary:
IB3169 LHR-MAD
IB808 MAD-LPA
^150 (in total for both flights)

Seems like a reasonable price.

But, search for LHR to Madrid (MAD) on the exact same day, on the exact same website and you get this:
IB3169 LHR-MAD
^550

Yes, that's right.  They are charging an additional ^400 to not purchase an additional seat on another flight.

There are some problems with buying the through ticket:
1. In the event of disruption, the airline only needs to re-route you to the final destination
2. Baggage may be checked through to the final destination
3. This may in contravention of the airline's frequent flyer system
4. You probably won't find a similar fare in the opposite direction

This looks like an exact replica of the situation we see on the railways.  Remember the couple who were charged for leaving the train at Eastleigh, when they held tickets through from London Waterloo to Southampton Central....

It seems the airlines are not prepared to ignore it however....

From CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/29/news/united-orbitz-sue-skiplagged-22/index.html)

Just as TOCs aren't happy with split ticketing on rail services. Fortunately though, passengers have the protection of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage and, despite ATOC moaning about split-ticketing, they have no real appetite for the political and public relations fallout should they try to amend or remove Condition 19.

I've flown a few times from UK to Chania in winter. no direct flights. Its normally cheaper to buy separate UK-Athens-Chania with a big saving than it is to buy a through ticket with change at Athens. That is despite paying extra tax on separate tickets than buying a through ticket.

I'm pretty sure the changes of last summer did away with the anomaly, but I think bus fares from Bath to Corsham used to be more expensive than Bath to Chippenham via Corsham - a slowish journey that competes with the train.  There was absolute horror, and "you CANNOT do that", when I suggested at a bus user group meeting that people buy a Chippenham ticket and get off short.  And rail rules for advance tickets (and megatrain) also outlaw the practise, with potentially expensive penalties and occasionally not just potential.

It feels wrong to be charged more for the shorter journey, and it feels wrong not to be allowed to get off short in cases where that rule applies.  The only case I personally can see where shorter-costs-more would feel right is if the short stop station / stop was more expensive per passenger to operate.

A friend of mine went to South Africa over Christmas - it was apparently ^500 cheaper for him to go from London to Amsterdam, back to London and then on to Johannesburg than to go straight there!

It's usually cheaper to go 'via' somewhere than direct when flying.....so the more miles you fly, the cheaper it is.

Commercial decision by airlines with hubs off the line of route. Try Emirates via Dubai, for example, to South Africa.

Some of this stuff SEEMS to be completely bonkers...my eldest son is travelling from London to Hong Kong in March with BA but saves himself c. ^150 by catching the Eurostar to Paris, staying overnight and then taking a connecting BA flight back to Thiefrow the following morning.  ???

In some ways it makes sense to pay more for a quick direct flight, at least to the customer. What the airlines' motives are is less clear to me.

It reminds me of bus fares. In Britain, most operators make you pay once per bus used (though in fairness most now offer day tickets that limit how far that can build up). If I need to travel across Reading, for some trips there's a route that goes through the middle, but in most cases it means a change and two buses so two tickets and twice the cost. But to me a single bus all the way is worth more than having to change - so why do they charge me half as much?

It's all about the difference between the cost (to the seller) and the value (to the buyer) of the same product. There's no reason why they should ever be the same, though theory says the value must always exceed the price. The prices in aggregate have to exceed the nett costs, for solvency's sake.