How to see competitor's prices?

[tacsniper]

Is there anyway to see other competitor's ticket prices on the same routes? Otherwise how would we know if we are charging to little, perfect or too much against other airlines?

If so I would love to know how. Thanks!

[inyoka]

Hi,

There is no way in the game to see what the competitor charges.

I normally take my market share on a route, compared to the percentage of the total seats I offer on the route as an indication if I am the preferred airline for customers on that route.

[nicoelscublog]

Well, in reality a simple search on Expedia will give anyone on this planet the prices to fly any route in this world, also what time it flies, for how long, what type of seats etc. There is no such option in Airway Sim, and it would be nice to implement it.
That's how it works in real life, why would it be so hard to make it work here, there is no additional computing necessary anyway.
So, that would be a nice touch.

Also, some sort of search engine would be nice. For example if I search flights between OTP and LHR, for example, the engine would show me which airlines fly, what time, and how much they charge on the respective route. Again, it's not rocket science, in the sense that I guess it's easily implementable. Hope someone will read this and think about it, if they want this sim to be more real.

[Sami]

This is already discussed before, please use forum search.

The airline pricing in real world isn't that simple what you might think, and to keep things playable they are quite simple here and that's one main reason why they are not visible. ..but use the search, there's more story on that there.

[swiftus27]

Sami, with more and more people playing, you will find the same stuff coming up over and over.   The same question will keep reappearing to the point where early gamers will want to kill themselves.

You may want to start having canned answers ready to paste when they come up again.

[tacsniper]

or we just need a really comprehensive FAQ

[dazz81]

Well, in reality a simple search on Expedia will give anyone on this planet the prices to fly any route in this world, also what time it flies, for how long, what type of seats etc. There is no such option in Airway Sim, and it would be nice to implement it.
That's how it works in real life, why would it be so hard to make it work here, there is no additional computing necessary anyway.
So, that would be a nice touch.

Also, some sort of search engine would be nice. For example if I search flights between OTP and LHR, for example, the engine would show me which airlines fly, what time, and how much they charge on the respective route. Again, it's not rocket science, in the sense that I guess it's easily implementable. Hope someone will read this and think about it, if they want this sim to be more real.

it isnt that simple. yes the Expedia site will quote you a price for a particular seat, but it will not tell you how many seats on the plane will be sold in that fare bracket, or the next fare bracket up. A particular flight may have 10 to 20 different fare brackets on it for all the available classes, they are all different prices, and NO AIRLINE will reveal how many seats are sold in each bracket. Airlines can get some sort of vague idea what is being charged on the market, but they certainly can't get access to that inside information in reality.

[Pike]

Sami, with more and more people playing, you will find the same stuff coming up over and over.   The same question will keep reappearing to the point where early gamers will want to kill themselves.

You may want to start having canned answers ready to paste when they come up again.

Yeah, for times like when people asked how long you have to go before bankruptcy is forced....right?

[jmcmanna]

I am not an expert on the "behind the scenes" operation of the airline's marketing and pricing of their flights, so I hope somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.  Aren't the big travel websites (orbitz, expedia, travelocity, etc...) a cooperation between the participating airlines?  A colleague of mine worked for Orbitz a while ago, I'll have to see if she can explain what the airlines do and don't know about eachother.  

If it's only a vague idea of the average fare (I think it's more than just vague, but for the sake of argument, vague is okay), having a rough idea in the game as well would be beneficial.  We really don't have anything close to even that.  A rough idea on load factors, as well, would be helpful.  Airlines have some access to eachother's information on that as well (as well as the travel websites mentioned above).

Anyone can get on the internet, pick a flight, and at a minimum get prices for 6 different fare classes in 30 seconds.  For the sake of argument, isn't that better than none?

[dazz81]

hi jmcmanna. We have a rough idea in the game, its the fare that the game produces when you create a flight.

[pseudoswede]

Aren't the big travel websites (orbitz, expedia, travelocity, etc...) a cooperation between the participating airlines?

Orbitz was started by a group of airlines to combat Expedia and Travelocity, but has since given up control.

To get a better idea of how North American airlines track each other's fares, see this article.

[DJRobbieD]

I am not an expert on the "behind the scenes" operation of the airline's marketing and pricing of their flights, so I hope somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.  Aren't the big travel websites (orbitz, expedia, travelocity, etc...) a cooperation between the participating airlines?  A colleague of mine worked for Orbitz a while ago, I'll have to see if she can explain what the airlines do and don't know about eachother.  

If it's only a vague idea of the average fare (I think it's more than just vague, but for the sake of argument, vague is okay), having a rough idea in the game as well would be beneficial.  We really don't have anything close to even that.  A rough idea on load factors, as well, would be helpful.  Airlines have some access to eachother's information on that as well (as well as the travel websites mentioned above).

Anyone can get on the internet, pick a flight, and at a minimum get prices for 6 different fare classes in 30 seconds.  For the sake of argument, isn't that better than none?

I work in management for a well known British carrier, in the "real world" we do have full acess to all the fare information of other airlines in our alliance, incl. all price brackets, how many seats have been sold on a particular route etc.

We do not have access to any airfare information from any other airlines.

Although our airfares are regulated by a government body who issue us with Guide prices these are not based on an actual route (i persume to allow for competition)

The guide prices are set something like this:

Flights
<500nm = £20.00 per nm
500-1000nm = £19.00 per nm
1000-2000nm = £18.00 per nm

and so on....