The train is $65 one way, last I checked. Driving is a little more (with tolls & gas).

cmunic8r99: Supply and demand, anyone?

Oooh! Sorry. The answer we were looking for was "monopoly". Mo-nopoly. Thanks for playing though.

Ah, extortion. The last vestige of true capitalism.

Actually, what pisses me off most is that the Pittsburgh Region bent over backwards to keep USAirways as a presence in the region. They were a major employer through the mid 2000s (something like 10,000 people), we gave them major tax concessions, big deals at the terminal -- the current terminal was built specifically to handle USAirway's projected traffic, and then after all that we ceased to be a hub and were demoted down to a "focus city."

F*ck 'em.

KyngNothing: Wow, so it turns out most people flying out of Pittsburgh to Philly are just doing it to connect out of Philly to somewhere else on US Air?

Your choices are Philly, Newark, or Charlotte. I don't remember the last time I took a flight on USAirways that didn't route me through one of those places.

Andromeda: They don't do international flights anymore, do they?

/ Canada doesn't count

I think they just stopped the direct flights to Paris-de Gaulle. There's a Mexico flight too over the summer, it seems.

Marcus Aurelius: After the aggravation of getting to the airport early and parking and then cooling your heels in the airport, not to mention the flight time, driving might be a lot easier.

The flight is something like 45 minutes. Let's assume that you get there an additional 45 minutes ahead of time and it takes you 30 minutes to get to PIT. You're at 2 hours already. Let's assume it takes you 30 minutes to get out of PHI (speaking of airline related things that need a good punch in the taint) and another 45 minutes to get to your destination in Philadelphia. So that's pushing up on 3 hours, point to point.

I've made the Pittsburgh to Philadelphia run in 4 1/2 hours (but, I have a lead foot).

at that price point, they are begging Southwest to give it another go.

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat
I've made the Pittsburgh to Philadelphia run in 4 1/2 hours (but, I have a lead foot).


*Chewbacca sound*

how many parsecs is that?

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: I've made the Pittsburgh to Philadelphia run in 4 1/2 hours (but, I have a lead foot).

But in how many parsecs? That's the important factor here.

busy chillin': Angry Drunk Bureaucrat
I've made the Pittsburgh to Philadelphia run in 4 1/2 hours (but, I have a lead foot).


*Chewbacca sound*

how many parsecs is that?

*shakes tiny fist*

Surely you are mistaken. Unfettered free market competition always brings about optimal solutions for all market participants.

Well since the article mentions other non-direct options for less than $200, I don't see the issue.

Is US Air stopping other carriers from offering direct flights between the two cities?

EighthDay
busy chillin': Angry Drunk Bureaucrat
I've made the Pittsburgh to Philadelphia run in 4 1/2 hours (but, I have a lead foot).


*Chewbacca sound*

how many parsecs is that?

*shakes tiny fist*

all good it is

great minds...

This route won't be without competition for long.

Mr. Coffee Nerves: Enjoy the Invisible Fist of the Free Market.

I wish people weren't so ideologically simple that they can't see that a market without regulations will eat itself alive as much as a society without laws in general would.

Is the "Obvious" tag on a smoke break?

Of course airlines gouge you when there's no competition. That's what they do. Does everyone get angry at a Lion for mauling a gazelle? Of course not -- that's what Lions do. Nor should we be angry or surprised when airlines take every opportunity to Fark you -- that's just what they do.


Anecdotal evidence: Used to fly from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach ever year for a golf tournament with my dad. The flight time is about 45 minutes. The drive time is about 5.5 hours.

Air Tran and Delta had flights from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach until about 2008. When both had routes, the cost was about $100. Air Tran pulled out of Myrtle Beach in around 2008. The following year, Delta was the only game in town, and the flight cost about $350.

Again, that's what airlines do. But let's just let them do it, or we'll be socialists.

MugzyBrown: Is US Air stopping other carriers from offering direct flights between the two cities?

The point is that the "free market" has ended with a localized monopoly, and that said monopoly was immediately far worse for consumers than any nationalized system ever could be.

It's not about ideology, it's about what is simply better.

See what happens when you let them put hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place?

For those of us in Pgh with family in Philly, it really settles that "fly or drive" debate forever.

Cubansaltyballs: The stewardesses used to be hot. Now, the only place you can even find a moderately cute one is on Virgin America.

Yeah...and even then, I think that name is still false advertising...

600%!?

Subby can't math; (698-118)/118 = 4.915254

More like 492%.

Treygreen13: THESE COMPANIES KEEP CHARGING EXORBITANT PRICES AND I KEEP PAYING THEM
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE COMPANIES

Suppose you need to fly to an area where only these guys operate... you are f*cked.

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: The train is $65 one way, last I checked. Driving is a little more (with tolls & gas).

I'm setting up my competing Pittsburgh/Philadelphia trebuchet . Only 50 bucks.

Cubansaltyballs: This is the free market at its best. Interfering with their business would be just flat-out wrong... unless it's during their bankruptcy and the govt has to pick up their tab for their pension plan.

It shames me that our educational system has failed to educate people sufficiently on economics.

This isn't a "free market" in any sense of the word because the cost of entry is too high. This really looks like a situation where a natural monopoly exists. That's completely unrelated to free market economics and you look like an idiot saying that it's somehow even remotely similar.

It's the invisible hand giving you the finger.

tomcatadam: The point is that the "free market" has ended with a localized monopoly, and that said monopoly was immediately far worse for consumers than any nationalized system ever could be.

It's not about ideology, it's about what is simply better.

No it hasn't. There are other flights. they just take longer to get there, but you can still fly from Pitt to Phila for $200 if you want.

Or you can take the train.

Or you can drive.

If a company thinks they can make money at $400 per flight direct, then it will be offered.

MugzyBrown: Well since the article mentions other non-direct options for less than $200, I don't see the issue.

Is US Air stopping other carriers from offering direct flights between the two cities?

A lot of times such companies will engage in political lobbying that essentially results in this.

I don't know for a fact that's happening here but it has elsewhere.