Editor's note: About two hours after publishing this story, United once again pulled the fares that pushed solo travelers into a pricier fare bucket.
A week after causing an uproar by charging some solo passengers significantly higher fares than groups of two or more, American Airlines continues employing that pricing tactic on dozens of domestic routes. But after backtracking briefly while the story was dominating national headlines last week, United resumed penalizing single flyers on some routes Thursday, too.
So once again, search for just one passenger from Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Asheville (AVL) late this summer and you'll see one-way fares no lower than $224 a ticket.
But bump that same exact search up to two passengers, and suddenly the price drops to a far-more-reasonable $104 fare per person – less than half the cost of booking for just one.
That's a recent change, likely pushed through sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday. As of publication, we're only seeing those higher United fares for single travelers within the next 30 days and on select dates ahead of holiday weekends like the Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.
American is still doing the same on a much broader scale – in fact, it never stopped. You'll see a single-passenger search from its hub in Charlotte (CLT) to Austin (AUS) this fall pulls up an outrageous $504 one-way fare for a standard economy ticket …
… unless you search for two passengers, in which case the price per ticket drops by a third to just $338 for that exact same economy fare. Plus, there's an even cheaper basic economy ticket bookable for two – an option that wasn't available for the solo traveler.
Those are just two examples among dozens that show two of the country's largest airlines are penalizing solo travelers. And they've done it without a bit of advertising, disclosure, explanation, or even acknowledgement.
United declined to comment Thursday morning. American Airlines has not responded to any requests for comment on its pricing tactics in the last week, including Thursday morning.
As of publication, Delta Air Lines was still selling one- and two-plus-passenger tickets at the same price after reversing course late last week. But with its two largest competitors returning to a pricing tactic that penalizes solo travelers, Delta has all the cover it needs to do the same … if it wants.
United's about-face is the latest turn in a saga that made the airline industry's already opaque pricing systems national news, reinforcing many travelers' frustration with unpredictable airfare.
We first broke the news last week, confirming that all three of the nation's largest airlines were charging solo and business travelers higher fares – in some cases, up to 70% higher … or even more than double the cost. Just over 24 hours later, Delta and then United dropped the fare structure that pushed single passengers – in some cases, leaving the higher-priced fares in place for everyone.
As before, it's hit or miss: Solo travelers won't see higher fares than couples or families on all United and American flights. Our team of flight deal experts' research shows the airlines are currently deploying this tactic on dozens of domestic one-way routes.
But it's a pricing penalty that could easily expand – especially if airlines believe they can wait out the backlash and reintroduce, or maybe even expand it.
Airlines have entire departments whose sole purpose is to leverage that system in order fill planes at the highest ticket prices as possible. And that's likely what they're trying to do with this new tactic: Squeeze business travelers who are more likely to be flying alone … and who would easily pay more for flights than a vacationing family, because their employer is footing the bill.
They've done that by writing rules into the lower-priced fares explicitly requiring at least two adults on the reservation. Search for just one passenger, and you'll skip right past that better deal and automatically bump up to the pricier fare.
Airlines aren't Costco or Target, where bulk discounts are both common and advertised. For airlines, this isn't a discount for groups – it's a price hike for solo travelers.
This is a developing news story, check back for updates.
