The price loophole on plane tickets that can save you thousands – NRK Troms and Finnmark
John Ivar Kristensen lives in Eidsvoll, but has a cabin by Lakselv in Finnmark. He and his family travel this several times during the year.
Last week he had to book a plane ticket from Lakselv to Oslo towards the end of September. He used a travel search engine where a direct route with SAS costs DKK 2,200.
But after a while, Kristensen got a surprise.
He found the same trip to the capital for just under 800 kroner.
The trick was that this trip had Copenhagen as its final destination.
The journey started with the scheduled flight Lakselv-Oslo, and then on to Denmark’s capital.
– You can buy a ticket all the way to Copenhagen and get off in Oslo, but then you can’t check in the luggage, says Kristensen since the luggage had then been sent to Copenhagen.
Kristensen did not know about this «trick» before. That is why he is surprised by the price difference between the flight to Oslo and all the way to Copenhagen from the same place.
– It’s a bit nice, but I’m not complaining about being able to fly all the way to Copenhagen for DKK 790.
Thinks SAS is taking advantage of its monopoly situation
Kristensen believes that this case is related to the fact that the only direct route from Lakselv to Oslo is operated by SAS.
In 2020, the airline won a tender for direct flights from the capital to Lakselv as part of the Armed Forces’ modernization in Finnmark.
– The way I see it, it’s just SAS using its monopoly situation on this stretch to the fullest and ripping off the local population for what they can.
Kristensen is puzzled as to what enables the airline to charge higher airfares to Oslo than to a city abroad.
– Is the agreement with the Norwegian Armed Forces so good that they can afford to fly with empty seats? Or is the deal so bad that they have to rip off the locals to make a profit?
More examples
NRK has carried out several similar searches as Kristen has done. Is it really the case that a long-haul flight to Norway will be cheaper if the trip is made into a foreign trip with a stopover in Oslo?
Yes, by searching for travel and random Monday and month, tickets appear.
For example, a trip Stockholm-Alta on September 26 will cost a minimum of DKK 1,330, according to the SAS search engine. The trip from Sweden requires a stopover and a change of plane in Oslo.
But if you want to buy a ticket Oslo-Alta on the same day with the same flight, the minimum price is DKK 1,749.
If you want to travel from Bardufoss to Berlin on September 26, it will cost DKK 1,094 with a change of flight in Oslo. But if you buy tickets on the same flight Bardufoss-Oslo, the price increases by DKK 800.
Also at Bardufoss won SAS Forsvaret’s tender in 2019 to provide flight connections for defense personnel.
Common practice
Press manager at the Norwegian SAS department, Tonje Sund, replies to NRK that, for reasons of competition, she cannot go into detail about routes and market areas.
– PPrices on plane tickets are determined by where and when you have to travel and change dynamically in line with supply and demand. There will therefore be individual periods when you can find more reasonable trips to a city other than Oslo, explains Sund.
She writes that these changes apply to the entire SAS flight network and no particular cities. She says that such price differences can also occur with other airlines around.
When it comes to the tenders SAS has with the Norwegian Armed Forces, Sund believes that they do not affect the ticket price.
– Both economically and environmentally, it is important to have a high level of filling on the planes. This applies to all departures and all destinations, and it is not a unique problem for SAS either.
But airlines don’t like defectors.
– According to the ticket rules, it is not allowed to jump off at the stopover. If passengers do this, the return journey can be canceled according to EU rules.
Sund writes that SAS does not see this as a widespread phenomenon.
– Min the extreme, breaking the ticket rules can have consequences for the traveller, writes Sund.
Complex felt
Elisabeth Carina Syversen, communications manager for the travel agency Berg-Hansen, says that when it comes to air ticket prices, it felt quite complex, and much can appear illogical to customers during a price search.
– Any flight consists of many different price categories. The airlines themselves control at all times how many they put the sellers at what price on different routes. It is both about concrete sales and forecasts, she writes in an e-mail to NRK.
When it comes to the price difference John Ivar Kristensen has discovered, she thinks the reason may lie in the fact that there are more available seats on the flight Oslo-Copenhagen and Lakselv-Oslo.
– In addition, it is the case that on regular trips abroad, there is no VAT if the stopover is less than 24 hours in Oslo. This can also have an impact on the final price, writes Syversen.