Monday, April 21, 2014

How to Get 35% Discount on Airfare (Thank you, Hadoop!)

As data geek and travel addict, quite often I find myself checking tickets prices and running Map Reduce jobs for fun. (Hehehe)

Here is one very interesting discovery!

Here is the availability for the afternoon flights out of San Jose (SJC) to Los Angeles (LAX). 
AA 2580 is available for $201.00 USD   3:45 pm departure and 5:00 pm arrival 
Looks normal, right? It is  reasonable price for the last minute ticket on a busy route.

Let's try to book a ticket a bit further - to San Diego, for example.
 Here is what American Airlines can offer me. 

AA 2580 3:35 pm departure with 5:00 pm departure to LAX
AA 2786 6:35 pm departure wiith 7:20 pm arrival to SAN

Looks normal, right? Reasonable price for last minute to a smaller city.
Except AA 2580 is the same flight on both reservations and the second one is 50$ (40%) cheaper.

I could not help but wonder why I would not book cheaper flights and walk out in Los Angeles.


Cheers!