SAS Age-Based Price Discrimination

It’s not that uncommon for some airlines to offer discounts to children, or even to sell tickets at different prices based on a person’s location, the type of electronic device they’re using or if they’re travelling for work.

There are also plenty of examples of airlines charging different fares on domestic flights to residents and non-residents, as is the case with some Peruvian airlines.

But the airfares of one European airline can differ enormously, depending on whether you’re aged above or below 25 years old. In fact, on some flights, people aged 26 or over are paying five times more than passengers 25 or under!

I recently booked a flight with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) from Copenhagen to Hamburg. I was quite shocked to find that the cheapest available one-way airfare for one adult on the flight I wanted was almost €700 (~AU$1,015)!

This was more than I was prepared to pay for a short one-hour flight, so I ended up booking a seat using United MileagePlus miles instead. This cost me 6,500 United miles and just AU$32.70 in taxes – a much better deal.

The flight ended up leaving two-thirds full, with plenty of empty seats in both Economy and “SAS Plus”, which is the designated premium cabin on SAS short-haul flights. So, I was perplexed at why the airfares were so expensive.

Admittedly, the flight I booked seemed to be unusually expensive – even for SAS. But if we look at the “low price calendar” on the SAS website which shows the lowest available airfares each day for the rest of this month, most adult airfares from Copenhagen to Hamburg on SAS seem to start from between €161.90 (~AU$235) and €443.63 (~AU$644). That’s still quite expensive for a 174-mile turboprop flight between two major cities.

Interestingly though, SAS also offers “Youth” fares for passengers aged 12-25 years old. You can easily change your search to look for Youth fares instead of the “adult” prices.

It turns out that the Youth fares aren’t just a little bit cheaper. They are significantly cheaper on the dates they are available.

As you can see, the special Youth fares aren’t available on every flight. But they are widely available if you book at least a week in advance, and they are a fraction of the price.

The availability of Adult and Youth fares on SAS is completely separate, with different fare classes used for each type. It is also possible, as was bizarrely the case on my flight, that the Adult fares are sold out in Economy but Youth fares are still available! (The €699 fare on my flight was an SAS Plus fare, which was the cheapest fare available to adult passengers at the time I booked. But Economy was not full, and Youth fares were still available for sale.)

The SAS Youth fares are only available in Economy Class (marketed as SAS Go), and not SAS Plus. It’s also worth noting that you cannot include Youth and adult fares on the same ticket; Youth fares must be booked separately.

Here’s an example of the SAS Youth fares available on a flight from Copenhagen to Hamburg on 17 April, starting from €67.19 (~AU$97):

I’m unfortunately no longer under 25 years old, so the cheapest commercial airfare I would have access to on the same flight costs €309.63 (~AU$449):

As you can see, there is an enormous price difference between the adult and youth prices. In this example, the adult fare is almost five times the price! This isn’t even the most extreme example, as the adult fares on the previous day’s flight start at €363.63 (~AU$528) while the Youth fare is still €67.19 (~AU$97).

This phenomena can be replicated on many other SAS routes and dates.

Of course, the discounted Youth fares are great for people under 25. I don’t begrudge that SAS wants to make flying more affordable for young people. But such extreme age-based price discrimination is not something I’ve seen from other airlines.

Luckily, should I need to book with SAS again, award availability is plentiful and the taxes are low when redeeming United miles or Air Canada Aeroplan points.

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.