From:  Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Date:  14 Mar 2024 00:41:05 Hong Kong Time
Newsgroup:  news.alt119.net/cam.misc
Subject:  

Re: Cambridge North car parking

NNTP-Posting-Host:  null

Michael Kilpatrick  wrote:
> I'm flying to Washington DC in May to bury my head in the Duke Ellington 
> manuscripts at the Smithsonian. I'm wondering whether there is any value 
> in taking the cheapo flight from Stansted via Rekjavic with some airline 
> I've never heard of, in the daytime on the Sunday but trying to get a 
> one-way ticket back via BA/Lufthansa/usual suspects on the direct 
> overnight flights to Heathrow.

STN-KEF-IAD on 3rd May
IAD-KEF-STN on 12 May
both on Play airlines £326
(not sure if that's a through ticket or not)

LGW-KEF-BWI on 4 May
BWI-KEF-LGW on 13 May
both on Icelandair £470

or same dates LGW-BOS-DCA and return on Jetblue £517

Nonstop LHR-IAD and IAD-LHR on 4/12 May on Delta £664

and many variations of the same.

IAD to LHR one way on 11 May on United $708

So a one way nonstop is almost the same price as a return.  So halve the
price going via Iceland with a stop each way.

Prices from matrix.itasoftware.com and kiwi.com
(beware kiwi gluing together low cost airline fares, there's trouble if
things go wrong)

> As for silly pricing, I was going to do the usual Sunday daytime then 
> Friday night overnight return, but I discovered these days there is a 
> massive price hike on most airlines if you do that, and it's better to 
> fly back on Saturday. Even cheaper to fly Saturday to Saturday, but that 
> means a Sunday with nowt to do in DC and an extra hotel night.

That's the 'Saturday night away' rule.

> It's just an extremely IRRITATING load of nonsense, all of it.

Pre-US airline deregulation in 1978, prices were fixed to be 'reasonable'. 
Trouble was, that's much more in real terms than you're paying today.

Theo