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United adding nonstop flights with lower prices—maybe

Hi everyone—we’re booked on a nonstop United Newark to Rome flight in early May, and today google flights alerted me to a good price on a nearby date (I can’t seem to get the exact alerts I’d like from google flights because our trip contains both open jaw and different fare classes). We originally booked fully refundable tickets in August, then cancelled and rebooked when prices dropped by several hundred dollars in late September. Since then prices rose steadily, then dropped a bit, but have remained much higher than what we purchased in September.

After receiving the alert I got on the United site and plugged in the specifics again, and was surprised to see that United must have very recently added a second nonstop flight from Newark to Rome on the day we’re scheduled to fly. The second flight leaves a couple hours later than the original, and it’s got to be a pretty new addition to the schedule because there are no seats reserved yet. While the price we paid in September is still a little lower than prices on the newly added flight (which may be because there are no newly added flights from Milan, our return airport) I haven’t seen prices this low in several months. Not sure if this is a one off, or only a Newark thing or something more systemic, but it might be worth investigating if you’re planning to travel in May.

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United has publicly stated their intentions to add more non-stop flights to Europe in 2024. 👍

I'm not so sure those will have "lower prices" but an airline announcing more nonstops to the continent is always good to hear. Demand for leisure travel (especially travel to Europe) is booming, and as long as that continues (and as long as Boeing and Airbus can keep delivering long-legged airplanes), expect them to respond to the demand accordingly. It's a good time to be in the airline business. The limiting factors seem to be availability of efficient, long-range airframes and a pilot shortage. No shortage of customers.