HP Forum Archive 19

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Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #1 Posted by gene wright on 30 Sept 2010, 8:58 a.m. One of the reasons why HHC typically occurs near the end of September is because when it was first held 30 or so years ago, it was believed that air travel and hotel costs went down significantly after the end of the "summer season", considered to end September 15th. Is this still true? Do costs for air travel and hotel stays go down once you pass September 15th? They may have in the past, but do they still do so? If not, then perhaps HHC 2011 and beyond might be held in early / late August instead of the end of September. But, the committee needs data! Help! :-)

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #2 Posted by Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina) on 30 Sept 2010, 10:17 a.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright In general, travel costs from my country to the USA are higher between July 1 and August 20. I would like to attend some future HHC (I was there in 2007), so I would recommend a date outside that range. Dec-Jan-Feb have also higher fares, as we have our summer holidays in these months.

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #3 Posted by Thomas Chrapkiewicz on 30 Sept 2010, 10:25 a.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright It is apparent to me that based on the email/mail promotion traffic (at least from Southwest and Northwest/Delta) that air travel costs do drop significantly after Sept15. TomC

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #4 Posted by Brian Walsh on 30 Sept 2010, 11:02 a.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright Gene, I'd vote for late Sept./early Oct. since Labor Day plus or minus a week or so doesn't work for me, and the audiofest in Denver next year which I mentioned below is on Oct. 14-16.

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #5 Posted by BruceH on 5 Oct 2010, 5:20 p.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright Did you see my previous response?

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #6 Posted by Egan Ford on 5 Oct 2010, 5:25 p.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright I'm still waiting for this "challenge" to turn in to a programming challenge. :-)

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #7 Posted by BruceH on 5 Oct 2010, 8:53 p.m., in response to message #1 by gene wright Here's a screen capture from http://history.airfares.com showing AA fares (compared with the lowest available) purchased 14 days in advance for New York to Nashville over the last 12 months. It seems that there is no peak or off-peak period: the fares fluctuate wildly as the prices are set automatically by yield management software.

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #8 Posted by Katie Wasserman on 5 Oct 2010, 9:25 p.m., in response to message #7 by BruceH Quote: yield management software Looks to me more like one-dimensional Brownian motion simulation software.

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #9 Posted by gene wright on 6 Oct 2010, 7:30 a.m., in response to message #7 by BruceH Ok, so there does not appear to be any airfare seasonal cost difference. Hotel room charges are the remaining piece. Thanks so far all. P.S. Again, one of the primary reasons given for having HHC 2010 in late September is the change of seasons and a resulting decrease in costs for airfare and hotel bills. I wondered if that was leftover from the late 1970s and whether it was true today or not.

Re: Challenge: Are costs for air travel & hotel higher/lower/the same before/after September 15th Message #10 Posted by Patrick Rendulic on 7 Oct 2010, 9:43 a.m., in response to message #9 by gene wright As long as the conference takes place in late September, I will not be able to attend it. Where I live, school starts on the 15th of September. And being a teacher I cannot take a week off after the summer holidays. Maybe it would be an idea to introduce a shift, eg. a conference every 13 months. Just my idea.

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