Delta round trip price from NY queried
Dear Editor,
Out of curiosity I decided to check Delta Airlines’ website to see what they were charging for a round trip out of JFK to Georgetown and was astonished to be quoted prices of between US$1100 and US$1500 for a 21-day round trip ticket. The selected itinerary also indicated that the approximate flight time would be 5 hours and fifty minutes.
A further perusal of the said website also showed that the cost of a similar economy ticket from JFK to Los Angeles was between US$500 and US$700 with the estimated flight time 6 hours and 3 minutes. Since both of these planes should be consuming the same amount of fuel, all things being fairly equal there is absolutely no possible justification for Delta charging twice as much for essentially the same product.
I want to make it explicitly clear that I am not being anti-capitalist for bringing to the fore this anomaly, but the corporate titans of the industrialized countries are only embracing the third world because their home markets are leaking money faster than water in a drift seine because of over-saturation. They therefore see these under-served markets as being ripe for exploitation, and building in a risk premium is desirable if not a necessity to aid in their return to profitability. I am well aware that because of the price of oil, travelling has to become more expensive, but enjoying a virtual monopoly doesn’t justify what seems at best price-gouging.
Yours faithfully,
Kenneth Frank
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to Mr Junior Horatio, General Manager of Delta Air Lines’ local operations for comment and received the following response from Raquel Chandleur, District Sales Manager for Delta Air Lines Inc:
“We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the letter written by Mr. Kenneth Frank.
Delta Air Lines is dedicated to the communities in which we operate, and as a result, we take all concerns from each community very seriously. Our official response to Mr. Frank’s letter is as follows:
“Comparing fares based on travel time is not an accurate representation of the cost of a flight, given that there are many other costs involved, including taxes, airport fees and services, and other expenses that vary from airport to airport and from country to country.
There are also many other variables that determine the final cost quoted to a customer. For example, more restrictive fares may require that tickets be purchased three weeks prior to departure. In other instances, based on how heavily a flight is booked, the cheaper, more restrictive fares may no longer be available for sale.
There are many permutations and combinations that determine a final ticket costing. Time of booking, the country in which the sale is made, and travel dates, to name a few, make the final costing variable.
Delta fares are applicable to each market it serves, and the success of our international expansion in such a tough landscape of the airline industry is proof that our prices are competitive and fair.”
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sorry to say, that is no deal…maybe in canada, but in the US that is to costly.. You can fly to any other caribbean island and for $1100 the intenarry would include, flight, hotel, and rental…so great deal! I THINK NOT..
One can not compare fares based on travel times alone. As Ms Chandleur pointed out, airline fares are based on load factors, country of destination, taxes, etc.
The sky rocketing fuel prices also will add greatly to the cost of a ticket now.
All airlines are adding a fuel surcharge to the passenger ticket.
As Ms Chandleur stated many factors are the cause of a fare basis.
The airline business is suffering greatly from the soaring fuel prices and as such the costs have to be passed on to the passenger.
Kenneth should know that airlines in the US have to undergo stringent FAA regulations for maintenance and security and that cost money. It’s no fly by nigh operation.
Junior, I know you, I was once an International Flight Attendant on Guyana Airways when you were Reservation Manager at the Hotel Tower office. Flew for five and a half years and still travel a lot around the world, so you know I’ve got your back.
Take it from me, not many Guyanese could come home with that fare. We’re not alone, we have spouses and kids. Tell them.
For a couple with 3 kids, do the math for yourself. Bring Delta to this thread and let them read it.
$1,100×5 then add hotel rates, add food, add transportation, interior travel, what is Delta telling us, that going to Guyana on a vacation is the same as spending a gold bar in value? In fact bring the hotel managers to this blog as well. And I have still not added in all the “frecks” or “small-pieces” we have to give to our family and friends.
From our point of view, it sucks!
I would love going home but why do I have to return broke? Give us something to work with instead, like a nice package of hotel, airfair etc etc.
Get a deal going Delta, say with Pegasus or one of the smaller hotels and tourist operator.
Meanwhile Mansoor Nadir, work a little harder on bringing in those other airlines you talked about. A little competition will go a long way.
Guyana does not have the market for hotel/airline deals. The load factor is a critical issue as well. Trinidad, Barbados etc have hotel airline deals because they are simply swamped with visitors.
It works to the benefit of both hotel and airline in those markets. Guyana has ways, ways to go. However, the minister in charge Maniram Prashad don’t seem to have a clue.
For me, I’ll put up with the inconvenience of connecting flights on different carriers
Airfare….$1,100.00 x 5. Mom, Dad, three kids(average) $5,500.
Hotel(and you do want to book into a decent hotel with
adequate security in place. Mom/Dad $150×21 days $3,150.
Boy child. $75×21 days $1,575.
Girl children(2) $75×21 days $ 1,575.
Tour trips (Essequibo River/Bartica/amazon $200×5 $ 1,000.
Travel/transportation for 21 days. $ 300.
Food $ 300.
total $11,825.
Now Alli, I do not expect a free ride. I have travelled around the world since I was 20 years old, sometimes 3-4 times a week as an Internation Flight Attendant and that is for about my life. So far this year, I have been twice to Florida, Once to Atlanta, 17 days ago, to a wedding in Antigua and for Christmas and New Years to the UK.
That is light travel because I do flit in an out as often as a house fly. Do you see that figure up there? ($11,825.) It is not competitive and it makes Guyana a non-destination for a family of five. In fact, it is rediculous!
I have heard Guyanese saying time and time again, and they are not bloggers like us so you miss the moaning and groaning, including mine, but many on my website has been saying it, that going to Guyana has become too expensive.
Yes I welcomed Delta as well but whether Maniram has a clue or not, there is one thing that even he has to know, competition will bring the price down. Go out there and get it. God knows we need it!
The price of gas is not my problem when I book my ticket, it is the airline’s and I refuse to have them dump it all on my back. I’ve got my own problem to deal with.
And yes, if the airline and the hotels and the tour operators get together for a breakfast or lunch or a business meeting, they could give us a package deal, in fact many! If they can’t do it, I’ll do it for free and deliver to them a deal within a few days. There is really nothing to getting these package deals at all. So let them do it and stop turning me upside down and shaking me down.
So because they’re better than the worst, then we should accept bad as the norm. Give me a break! I don’t take hikes Alli, I take planes and I demand a reasonable price in and out of Guyana, just like I demand good governance.
I might not get them but that is no reason to stop expecting it. I don’t ever lower my expectation, but I never mind lower airfare to Guyana.
Guyana is in no position to bargain for the same concessions airlines offer for those destinations.
When and IF Guyana’s inept, visionless regime can come up with proper plans and actions of a tourism product maybe then they can bargain for some cheaper fares!!!
Guyanese was and will always be oppressed when it comes to flying because the Gov’t simply DON’T CARE.
It is a fact that the fees/taxes charged to fly out of Timehri are perhaps the cheapest in the world (have a good look at your ticket at the fees/taxes that you are charged travelling in/out GY compared to any other Caribbean airport much less North American or European airports.
The letter writer compared the JFK/GY fare with that of another US route. To further highlight the ridiculousness of this fare - and taking into account that the JFK/GY route is purportedly direct/non-stop - compare this with a Delta flight from Paris via JFK and Miami to Jamaica - which costs less than 1000 USD.
I guess because no one is really creating a fuss or can be bothered to take the time to do some research, no one cares. Then again, maybe not many care because they can afford it without bankrupting themselves.
Delta - surely you can do better than that! Hope that you are a LISTENING AIRLINE!!
You mentioned then that there are other airlines that you were in discussion with to come to Guyana. I urge you to continue those discussions and to give those airlines all due consideration.
The New York Georgetown route is a lucrative one. I know, having brought passengers to and fro out of Guyana for 5 and a half years, so there is room for more airlines to ply the route.
I really don’t understand Delta’s explaination. It sounds like tommy rot to me. Which factors would make Guyanese pay more out of JFK than to Paris and London? All those explainations are an insult to our intelligence. If we get a reasonable base fare, then those who book early or late get their fare adjusted accordingly. Guyana’s airport tax is cheaper than Paris, I’m sure, and I am sure that you burn far more gas. Sometimes the flight time could determine if we get a cheaper fare over here. You’re not even offering that.
Keep it simple. It’s not complicated at all. The fare is much too high. Bring it down, increase the frequency and we know we can keep filling your planes up.
Minister Maniram, you bring in those other airlines, let the competition adjust the fare downwards and those hotel rooms would be filled, those tour operators would get rich and all those poor Guyanese selling bara, pholouri, Black pudding and souse by the road corner wouldn’t have hands to sell us. I don’t know when last I got a good glass of the real mauby!
Hurry up and hurry. Guyanese at home will thank you it as well.
I fly very often between New York and Orlando in Florida, a route that is serviced by both Delta and JetBlue out of New York’s JFK. And I know that Delta very often list fares that are 2-3 times that of Jetblue’s. Now, JetBlue not being unionized is the only plausible reason for this difference.
How do I know?
Well, when Delta operated a non-unionized airline called Song, which also flew the New York to Orlando route, its fares were very competitive with Jetblue’s. At no time did Song’s fares exceed Jetblue’s. In fact, Song very often offered fares that were a few dollars lower than Jetblue’s. But Jetblue’s scheduling was superior, so many people often used Song as a last resort.
Please also consider the information below.
Jetblue’s highest fare from Orlando to JFK on 6/22 is listed at $344.00 and its lowest at $214, for a direct flight (all of Jetblue’s flights from Orlando to JFK are direct). On that same day for a flight with one stop in Atlanta, Delta lists a highest fare of $797.00 and a lowest fare of $214.00. The $214.00 also applies to a direct flight to JFK, but my experience tells me that those seats will not be available. But the point is the differences between the fares.
I’m not convinced that lack of competition or fuel costs are driving Delta’s prices. As I said, it’s all about the fact that Delta is unionized. Hey, apart from the fare difference with JetBlue, why such huge differences in Delta’s own fares to fly the same Orlando-Atlanta-JFK route?
Guyana is poor but Guyanese are not idiots.
I believe everyone reading this blog have been given all the facts, figures, contrasts by some very hard working bloggers. Your conclusion is contrary to our findings. You ignore all the evidence while you tell us to bend over and get flogged as usual. Well we’re not there anymore.
I am beginning to see why you call yourself Boeing777. How many of you do Delta have flying high on the internet? Tell them they’ll just have far less of us going home, that’s all. From where I am sitting here, that means less profit.
With that fare, a stopover in Trinidad looks mighty good to me!
I’m simply stating the facts as they are. Guyana is not a tourist destination.
Unless that changes overnight. You will have to pay a HIGH FARE!!!!
It follows that the premium service will attract the premium price, put together with the price of fuel and all other supplies going up.
Usually what I do is keep checking the internet pricing, usually about 2 weeks before the flight, when they are anxious to fill the flight the price goes down for a brief period. This is, however, not always so.
That being said, I have to admit that Delta fares are not flexible, I tried to extend my flight in Guyana and I was told that I would have to pay an additional $800. In addition, on my flight down, I had to pay $80 overweight for 7 pounds, when I enquired the check in agent that was sooooo rude, said there was a fixed fee from 2 to around 20 pounds (I’m not sure of the upper limit). I should have filled up some more. The terminal is like a pig stye compared to the International Arrivals Terminal (Terminal 4) that North American used and that Caribbean Airlines uses). No shops are open, for coffee, or any kind of snack late in the night like term. 4. The accomodations appear to date back to when Pan Am owned the terminal (old and dingy), and the duty free is about a 50 mile walk (exaggeration) from the gate. All in all the service was terrible.
Needless to say I didn’t change the flight out of Guyana. North American, with all their flaws were much more accomodating. The most I paid to change my flight with them is $100, no matter what time of year it was.
There needs to be more competition out of Guyana, then the fares will decrease.
Obviously, the previous carriers who served the route were not charging enough for their services or they would still be in the market. If Delta could make more money by lowering the fares and carrying more passengers, don’t you think they would do it? So obviously there are enough people willing to pay what Delta is charging.
If Delta is making an ungodly profit on this route, you can be sure the competition will be all over it and jump in soon. THAT is capitalism.
They are flying by the seat of their pants on all issues.
Travellers have to settle Delta or Caribbean Airlines. There will be no rush of airlines knocking at Guyana’s door. In light of the cutbacks and layoffs at all major airlines in North America, it’s futile to argue you won’t pay Delta’s fare.
If you want to travel to Guyana non-stop from the US it’s Delta, if not, it’s Caribbean Airlines with a layover in Trinidad. Delta may not even be there for much longer, given the economics of the industry.