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Chapter 4 A Guide to Booking Airline Tickets Online

Pricing Behavior and Non-Price Characteristics in the Airline Industry

ISBN: 978-1-78052-468-9, eISBN: 978-1-78052-469-6

Publication date: 1 January 2012

Abstract

This study traces the evolution of offered airfares on 50 busy routes on the US domestic market. Our approach differs from that in the literature in the following ways. First, we trace the lowest offered fares for specific round-trip itineraries, acknowledging both that many trips involve return travel and that the round-trip airfare is often not equal to the sum of the two one-way fares. Many previous studies (e.g., Escobari, 2009; Escobari & Gan, 2007) either looked at fare quotes for specific one-way flights or examined the lowest round-trip quote available. Second, our sample of half of the top 100 domestic routes includes itineraries from markets with varying number of competitors as well as from markets with and without the presence of low-cost carriers (LCCs). Third, we have collected fare quotes simultaneously from three leading online travel agents. Thus, our research design allows us to see whether any systematic airfare differences exist across the different online distributors of travel services.

Citation

Bilotkach, V. and Rupp, N.G. (2012), "Chapter 4 A Guide to Booking Airline Tickets Online", Peoples, J. (Ed.) Pricing Behavior and Non-Price Characteristics in the Airline Industry (Advances in Airline Economics, Vol. 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2212-1609(2011)0000003006

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited