Summer isn’t particularly the time of year to think about cuffing season, but when you’re paying a singles tax of $20K per year if you live alone and considering NYC was named one of the worst cities in the U.S. to be single, sometimes we second guess deleting all those dating apps off our phone. To add insult to injury, traveling solo might actually be costing you more money.
According to a new report from booking site Thrifty Traveler, U.S. airlines are quietly charging single passengers higher fares than couples or families.
The team originally thought it was only Delta, when back in September they found the airline was charging $199 for one passenger on a one-way flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Miami (MIA), whereas when looking for two passengers the price dropped to just $118 per ticket for the same seat.
However, a recent report has found that this pricing structure can be found on airlines beyond just Delta.
After searching through hundreds of fares, the team over at Thrifty Traveler found that all three of the country’s largest carriers–American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta–are charging solo travelers higher ticket prices than you those booking plane tickets with a group. And in multiple instances, that difference can be significant.
In one instance, a search for one passenger flying United from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Peoria (PIA) with a departing date of June 13th costs $269 one-way at its lowest. Search for that same flight for two+ passengers and the price drops by almost a third–$181 apiece. Even more, when searching that same flight for more than one passenger, a United basic economy fare option pops up for even less–$151–though it wasn’t an option when booking for just one passenger.
A second instance shows a one-way American Airlines flight from Charlotte (CLT) to Fort Myers (RSW) on October 13th of this year priced at $422 at its lowest for a single passenger. When you search for two passengers, however, the ticket cost drops to just $266 per person, and again opens up a basic economy option.
To clarify, you won’t see these price differences on every single route. As of now, the team noted they’ve mainly only seen this pricing difference on one-way domestic tickets, not roundtrip fares or long-haul international routes. Additionally, they haven’t seen it on other major U.S. airlines such as Alaska, JetBlue, or Southwest.
Why are they doing this though? Well, Thrifty Traveler suggests it has to do with “segmentation,” or airlines trying to cater to different kinds of customers at once–each one is willing to purchase their ticket at a different price. “It’s just another way for airlines to continue ‘segmenting’ their customers, charging business travelers paying with a corporate card more while offering a better deal to families on the exact same flight,” reads the article.
If you are still interested in flying solo, these are the world’s best destinations for New Yorkers to head to and the most popular countries for singles to passport to. And as always, be sure to check out our guide on how to find cheap flights to travel on a budget.
However if you’d rather stay put and save the money, here are some fabulous places near NYC you can escape to for some soul-searching sans hopping on a flight!