[kolmogorov]

SFO - FRA has to be incredibly profitable . Only Lufthansa and Unites fly it (codeshare partners ). Regular economy for the rest of the year is around 2300 USD round trip and closer to the flight it’s around 3500. It’s completely ridiculous compared to other more competitive routes like London.

[fyfy18]

In my experience inter-continental flights to and from the U.K. are often a lot cheaper than from mainland Europe.

As an example, flying with Emirates to Dubai is often a few hundred euro cheaper from London that any other north and central European destinations they fly directly to.

[raverbashing]

Is that price without any connections? Because I suspect that flight gets most of its passengers from connections.

[kolmogorov]

nor sure I understand the question. it's for a economy return flight (direct). funnily enough you can sometimes get a Lufthansa flight to Copenhagen for around 1000 and that connects through frankfurt. that's because copenhagen is more competitive from SFO. with carry-on that's a way to game the pricing but I heard they cancel the return if you don't check in in CPH.

[raverbashing]

Yes, that's what I meant (and you exemplified), they charge more for SFO-FRA than for a flight that has one of its legs as SFO-FRA

And I suspect most of the passengers on SFO-FRA are from European connections and don't have FRA as their final destination (or initial origin)

[in_cahoots]

I just checked and you can get a flight with a 2 hour layover for $500. I'm not sure why anyone would pay 3x the price unless their company is covering the cost.