From: John Levine [johnl(_at_)taugh(_dot_)com]
It would have cost me more than twice as much as it did to fly to
Beijing, for example, if I had taken a direct flight from DFW
That's very odd. I see lots of fares from DFW to YVR from Saturday to
Saturday via Houston or Denver for in upcoming weeks for under $550,
and nonstops for $678.
I expect that a chunk of the variance hinges on the qualifier
"direct", which Mary included and Jon did not. Mary uses a major hub
(DFW) and can plausibly take direct flights to many locations. I
don't, and I never even consider searching for direct flights. But
the market for direct flights is likely to be much thinner than the
market for connecting flights, and to be more subject to spot
shortages and the vagaries of how airles have laid out their route
systems.
More disturbing is Mary's later "My indirect flight was $1156.23."
It'd be useful to get information from someone who really knows
airfares as to why that might happen. But I can see from ITA Software
that even indirect flights DFW-YVR in the near future can easily reach
$650, and higher within the next two weeks. Tickets BOS-YVR (my
route) have about the same prices.
Dale