Pricing Trivia #1

Here are some useful bits of pricing trivia and pricing anomalies that I have found over the years. They may no longer be valid, but they are thought provoking nevertheless:

• In the summer of 2003, the Air Tariff Publishing Company held 48,019,078 airfares is their database. That might explain why…
  
• In April 2004, the lowest economy class round trip airfare from Dallas-Fort Worth to Honolulu on American Airlines was $US1,060. However, if you purchased a Dallas-Fort Worth – Jas Jose round trip ticket (for $346) and a San Jose – Honolulu round trip ticket (for $350), you would have saved yourself $364.
  
• It is cheaper to fly 1,120km between Beijing and Shanghai than it is to drive. If one takes the Beijing to Shanghai expressway, you would have to stop ten times to pay tolls to the value of 500 yuan (approx. $US60). And that doesn’t include petrol. The tolls alone are cheaper than a discounted airfare.
  
• Unkechaug Indians can legally buy and sell tax free cigarettes. Drop buy the Poopatuck Smoke Shope (near Mastic, Long Island) and you can pick up a pack of cigarettes for between $US2.00 and $US3.50. In nearby New York City, you would pay $US7.00.
  
• Head across the US border, from Phoenix of Tucson, Arizona, into Negales, and you’ll be able to pick up prescription medicines for about ¼ of the price there are in the USA.