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George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)


pineda

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Delhi is 300 miles farther than Doha, according to the great circle mapper. A better question would be how much demand would there be for that route, or would Mumbai work better. Most of the Indians I work with fly to Mumbai or Calcutta.

Delhi and Bombay are the most important airports in India, I wouldn't put Calcutta in the same league.

Edited by Slick Vik
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Spirit is set to announce 10 (!!!) new routes out of IAH, 7 of which will be international. This is pretty unexpected, but quite exciting. They previously applied for Cancun, Los Cabos, and Toluca. I thought all the international cities would be in Mexico, but those are actually the only three Mexican cities that they serve at this time. I guess they could expand to new cities, or the remaining 4 may be Central America/Caribbean cities instead. 

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Apparently someone has gotten wind of most of the destinations on IAH's Wikipedia already (not confirmed by any sources yet). According to them the three domestic destinations are Cleveland, Oakland, and Latrobe (PA). The international destinations they have are pretty amazing, Managua, Armenia (Colombia), St. Maarten, and the aforementioned Cancun. Two new cities not served at IAH by United or anyone else.

 

Edit: That's what I get for trusting Wikipedia. Those were pretty much all wrong. The new cities are TPA (Tampa),  (BWI) Baltimore, OAK (Oakland), CUN (Cancun), SJD (Los Cabos), TLC (Toluca), MGA (Managua), SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica), SAP (San Pedro Sula, Honduras), and SAL (San Salvador). No new cities to IAH other than Toluca.

Edited by asubrt
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^And Southwest!

 

United and Southwest have a monopoly at each airport.  Guess what, tickets FROM SFO to HOU are cheaper than from HOU to SFO!  Don't believe me, look it up!!!

 

United is no different.  I hope Spirit ignites a price war out of IAH, and that HOU follow suit.  Man, it would be fantastic to buy some tickets at the prices that people in LA or NYC do.  Houston is expensive to fly out of!

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^And Southwest!

United and Southwest have a monopoly at each airport. Guess what, tickets FROM SFO to HOU are cheaper than from HOU to SFO! Don't believe me, look it up!!!

United is no different. I hope Spirit ignites a price war out of IAH, and that HOU follow suit. Man, it would be fantastic to buy some tickets at the prices that people in LA or NYC do. Houston is expensive to fly out of!

That's because sf is a bigger destination than houston

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That's because sf is a bigger destination than houston

You missed the point.  Houston was more expensive back when it was the busier airport than SFO.

 

My point was - Houston is expensive to fly out of.

 

Yet Houston is more expensive than just about every other airport in the country.  Look it up.

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I checked Spirit Airlines website.  It look a minor designed it.  You have to look very hard for there extra fees.  I checked IAH to FLL 12/01-1206 and Sprit was $301 roundtrip and United was $348.  Be very careful because they make bundle.  If you check in with a gate agent that is $5.  If you do not prepaid your carry on bag it is $100.  Seat assignments start at $5.00 to $12.00.  You must pay a fee to book online which does not any make sense.  Your seat pitch is 2 inches and the seats do not recline.  They stack you in like sardines.  Be careful if you pay for your bag when to book it is $26.  I loved when they disclose jet fuel is free!     

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You missed the point. Houston was more expensive back when it was the busier airport than SFO.

My point was - Houston is expensive to fly out of.

Yet Houston is more expensive than just about every other airport in the country. Look it up.

That's because of route competition (lack thereof) mergers between airlines and landing and parking fees. And as I said houston is not a destination for any tourist so there isn't a reason for prices to fly here to be high.

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That's because of route competition (lack thereof) mergers between airlines and landing and parking fees. And as I said Houston is not a destination for any as many tourists so there isn't a reason for prices to fly here to be high.

 

Fixed it for you. Tourists do come here, just not in the volumes that go to SFO. That may have something to do with the natural features in the area, since SF is not exactly brimming with cool things to do. We ran out after about 2 days. And the hills were a pain.

 

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That's because of route competition (lack thereof) mergers between airlines and landing and parking fees. And as I said houston is not a destination for any tourist so there isn't a reason for prices to fly here to be high.

That first sentence is sufficient to explain why Houston is so expensive.

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^And Southwest!

 

United and Southwest have a monopoly at each airport.  Guess what, tickets FROM SFO to HOU are cheaper than from HOU to SFO!  Don't believe me, look it up!!!

 

United is no different.  I hope Spirit ignites a price war out of IAH, and that HOU follow suit.  Man, it would be fantastic to buy some tickets at the prices that people in LA or NYC do.  Houston is expensive to fly out of!

 

I took the challenge.  Just did a search on Southwest.com for flights from SFO to HOU and from HOU to SFO, using the same dates (departing Nov. 18; returning Nov 21):

 

SFO to HOU:  Prices range from $340 to  $552.

 

HOU to SFO:  Prices range from $340 to $552.

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I took the challenge.  Just did a search on Southwest.com for flights from SFO to HOU and from HOU to SFO, using the same dates (departing Nov. 18; returning Nov 21):

 

SFO to HOU:  Prices range from $340 to  $552.

 

HOU to SFO:  Prices range from $340 to $552.

 

I searched for February prices last week.  This close to Thanksgiving, and this close to today's date the results will be expensive no matter where you search.

 

Maybe the prices are always in the same range, but last time I flew it was from HOU to SFO, and the fares if reversed (SFO-HOU) were cheaper!  This was also March/April... not November before the 2nd largest holiday of the year.

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I just tried Southwest for December 10 -12.  It was all within a buck or two regardless of where the round trip started, though it was a bit cheaper in/out of Oakland.  

 

I fly between Houston and the Bay Area with some regularity.  Southwest and Continental used to be pretty much in lockstep on stated fares, with Continental getting more expensive once various fees were added in.  United never seems to match Southwest, not that it really matters that much - I'd much rather use Hobby anyway since it's a lot more convenient for me here.  On the other end, travel time on BART from SFO or OAK to the Financial District is pretty much a wash, and if you're going anywhere not on the peninsula OAK pulls ahead.

 

As a side note, not only does United have a fortress at IAH, it has nearly as big a chokehold on SFO. 

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I searched for February prices last week.  This close to Thanksgiving, and this close to today's date the results will be expensive no matter where you search.

 

Maybe the prices are always in the same range, but last time I flew it was from HOU to SFO, and the fares if reversed (SFO-HOU) were cheaper!  This was also March/April... not November before the 2nd largest holiday of the year.

 

I guess you're amending your earlier statement to read something like "tickets FROM SFO to HOU are cheaper than from HOU to SFO",  except when they aren't (which appears to be most of the time)

 

 

Just did a February search (Feb. 10-13):

 

SFO to HOU:  prices range from $190 to $549

HOU to SFO:  prices range from $191 to $548

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I guess you're amending your earlier statement to read something like "tickets FROM SFO to HOU are cheaper than from HOU to SFO",  except when they aren't (which appears to be most of the time)

 

 

Just did a February search (Feb. 10-13):

 

SFO to HOU:  prices range from $190 to $549

HOU to SFO:  prices range from $191 to $548

 

I looked at it last week, and I spent several months earlier in the year looking up/researching flights from Houston to San Francisco (on any airline possible) - as my wife and I were planning a vacation to either Tahoe or Napa/Sonoma - I looked at prices to SFO, OAK, RNO, SJC and everywhere else in between.  Suffice to say the prices were almost always cheaper from those locations to HOU or IAH.

 

Maybe that was earlier in the year?  And maybe I picked the one single week when I was looking last week for price comparisons that SFO was cheaper?  Don't know?  Now, I did look for February dates for Southwest, I did find that the prices were similar for SFO to HOU or HOU to SFO - except - the flights from SFO to HOU typically had more times available with the lower fees.  Which to me = lower fares across the board.

 

Maybe that's changed since I looked last week?

 

I'm curious... do you ever post without sounding condescending?

Edited by arche_757
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I booked a ticket from IAH to SFO for Dec 30, for $80 one way. This was on Frontier when they first announced direct flights (back in September). Even with all their little fees, it was a pretty amazing deal - the $80 includes everything except for checking bags. I didn't see any changes in United's pricing before, during, or after this initial release sale. Kept an eye out in daily for months since I needed a return flight (Frontier's direct flight leaves at 6am which didn't work for me). Ended up booking on United miles to come home.

 

I'm a little disappointed that my 2-month old's first flight will be on Frontier. Hopefully he'll forgive me.

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