Hacker News Reader

Exaggeration is right. There is really nothing special about these routes with respect to fares. Only that perhaps there is more competition.

They are famous among aviation enthusiasts simply as a way to get access to airlines that one might otherwise have to travel great distances to try.

View on HN

What drives down their fares is this:

If an airline based in A is running a flight A>B>C, they can’t feed any pax to B except from A, or carry pax further than C (without interlining). So there’s a bit more of an incentive to sell tickets B>C while other airlines flying that route can sell tickets to a much wider array of passengers (coming from pre-B (but not A) or going post-C).

You're right, and the fare is cheaper, but there are also downsides (usually frequency). Product varies a lot as well, the reasons for choosing an Emirates 5th freedom product are usually different from picking a different (5th freedom) airline on a route.

And more to go wrong since a replacement plane is a big ways away!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com