Airlines have for years attempted to develop systems that would offer personalized fares to passengers, essentially providing the same flight at various price points based on their willingness and ability to pay.
Airlines, for a long time, offered astronomically high one-way fares, and return trips that didn’t include at least a Saturday night were also at a premium, discouraging business travelers from booking them.
Some of these practices ended when LCCs began pricing trips on a one-way basis, not charging a premium over return.
Now, The Economist has run a study and analyzed over 19,000 fares on 3,200 routes on American, Delta, and United, and made the following findings:
Delta: No fare discrepancies—two-person fares always equal or exceed solo fares.
United: Solo flyers paid at least 5% more on 8% of routes.
American Airlines: The most aggressive—solo travelers were penalized on 57% of routes.
Conclusion
This is only the beginning of these personalized fares that you could also call price discrimination.
If the airline determines that you are willing to pay a higher fare due to, for example, frequent flier status with free bags and lounge access, you are presented with a higher price than someone else.
Airlines have been really hard trying to get agencies and OTAs to adopt NDCs that allow higher personalization of fares and offers than standard GDSs, such as Sabre and Amadeus, that airlines have used for decades.
There are frequent premium fare offers from Lufthansa and Swiss that are for two travelers traveling together, which they use to target leisure travelers over business ones.
I rarely book anything directly with the airlines beyond award tickets, as I have found it much easier to use various OTAs to issue the tickets I am buying.