NW-Mailing-List Digest, Vol 166, Issue 44

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Mon Nov 19 09:29:16 EST 2018 

Sorry, I must disagree with your first paragraph. As a retired airline employee, a passenger failing to board a connecting flight is not going to raise any concerns at all. To the gate agent working the flight, it’s just another checked-in passenger who failed to board (and with today’s on-line check-in, lots of passengers check-in and then no-show). Their seat assignment will be dropped and if there are standby passengers waiting, a standby will be boarded. Perhaps a few weeks later, a ticket audit will catch it and action might be taken but nothing is happening at the gate. If it did, hundreds of flights would be delayed every day due to missing passengers. Even if the passenger was intending to travel, there are lots of reasons they miss the connection: they’re in a bar and lose track of time; they failed to adjust for a time change and think their flight is an hour later than it really is; they get lost in an airport.

Now regarding Waverly, I think it’s more likely a typo. I did some analysis of that fare table and for the most part, the fares are $0.035 per mile rounded to the nearest nickel. There are a few minor exceptions (usually a nickel difference) and Norfolk is discounted (should be $9.00 at $0.035 per mile rather than the $8.65 listed). As for Waverly, at $0.035 per mile, it's $6.90 rather than the $9.60 listed. Looks to me like a simple transposition of the first two digits.

That said, there are place where you can legitimately find a higher fare to an intermediate station. Newark Airport Rail on NJ Transit and Amtrak is such a place due to the airport monorail fee which is bundled into the fare. So the unwary traveler might think they’re saving money by buying a New York to Elizabeth ticket (father and less expensive) rather than NY to Newark Airport only to find that they have to pay the airport fee separately when they get off.

Hidden city (not phantom city) fare anomalies occur with airlines because each market is priced separately without regard to where connections occur. Due to competitive pressures, one market may be priced at a discount compared to another even though one needs to connect through the more expensive city. For the same reason, sometimes a market can be less expensive when connecting through AAA rather than BBB because fares in and out of AAA are less expensive so it ends cheaper to fly via AAA on separate fares in and out of AAA (even though the passenger holds a connecting ticket through AAA, the fare they pay can be separate origin to AAA and AAA to destination fares - most systems will price it that way if it is to the passenger’s advantage to do so).

-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On Nov 18, 2018, at 9:56 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> This is nothing new. Trust me. In the days before all the homeland security checks and counter-checks, the exact same thing existed, and maybe still does for that matter, regarding the airlines. They were called "phantom cities" but with all the seat checking and so forth, if there was an extra empty seat where none was before, today it raise big concerns.
> 
> But way back when, you could fly on a ticket from say ................... Charlotte to Chicago and the same plane continued on to Milwaukee, which would be your ticketed destination. The Charlotte to Chicago fare might be double what the fare was to Milwaukee. All you had to do was depart when the plane parked at the Chicago gate. Now you couldn't have any checked luggage either for obvious reasons, but a lot of money was saved by knowing such silly or not so silly routings.
> 
> So, the railroads apparently had the same anomalies and you just had to know. I suspect that type of list/routing stuff existed for quite a while, too and for many RRs. You just had to be know and be a knowledgeable traveler. With the advent of computers and security so many things have changed, but it wouldn't surprise me if similar situations still exist, but in far more isolated circumstances.
> 
> Bob Cohen
> 
> On Sat, Nov 17, 2018 at 10:09 PM <nw-mailing-list-request at nwhs.org> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. WHO WERE THEY ?   -- #112 --   James W. Morris  -  SV RR
>       (NW Mailing List)
>    2. N&W mid-1880s passenger fares (NW Mailing List)
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> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Subject: WHO WERE THEY ?   -- #112 --   James W. Morris  -  SV RR
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> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
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> Subject: N&W mid-1880s passenger fares
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> Attached is the back of a Palace Hotel card circa mid-1880s showing fares.  The fare from Roanoke to Waverly is $9.60 but if someone went to stations beyond, the fare was lower.  For example, Norfolk was $8.65.  Does anyone have thoughts about why this anomaly existed?  I suppose more than one person purchased a ticket for Wakefield and then de-trained at Waverly.
> 
> Best wishes to all for Thanksgiving,
> 
> Frank
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