It was cheaper to fly from Phoenix to Atlanta to Savannah than just to fly from Phoenix to Atlanta, why?

Question

My Mom flew out for thanksgiving and when checking for the cheapest flights, it was cheaper for her to fly to Savannah (by about $200) even though she had to catch a connecting flight in Atlanta.

Answer 1

It's not a fluke, it's very much intentional.

It is a published fare going PHX-SAV, NOT PHX-ATL-SAV. The point for the lower price is the induce people to fly from Phoenix to Savannah, which is probably not in high of demand as going to ATL. Unfortunately, Delta doesn't fly PHX-SAV directly, so the person has to fly to ATL first.

ATL is a mere happenstance of that ticket. If someone wants to fly to ATL, then they have to pay the market price for it. And more people want to go to ATL (or there's less competition) than SAV.

Oh, and btw, if she skips any segment on her itinerary, the rest of her flight segments will also be canceled.

Answer 2

The shorter segments on the itinerary are often assigned a premium price so that the seats will be available to travellers trying to reach a destination to which the airline does not offer a direct flight. If they sold all the "supporting segment" seats, someone wishing to book a longer (and usually more profitable) flight might not be able to.

If I wanted to fly from DC to Charlotte, it would be almost as expensive as it would be to keep on flying out to Las Vegas.

If you book early enough, you can get more reasonable fares but as soon as the supply of "connecting" flights starts dwindling, the prices on the rest of the legs starts going up.

Answer 3

Its an airline Fluke.
This past march I wanted to fly to Phoenix from Minneapolis.
It ended up being cheaper to fly from Minneapolis to Phoenix to Vegas. Even with renting a car and driving back to Phoenix it was cheaper. I am going to take a guess that you Either flew us air or
America West.