If you usually book flights for one, two US airlines may quietly be charging you extra. Fresh research from Thrifty Traveler tested 1,000 flights each across the five biggest US carriers over the next 11 months, and the numbers are hard to ignore. On American Airlines, 33.5% of the flights checked showed higher fares for solo travellers, with an average premium of more than $90. United does it less often — about 10.6% of flights — but still adds roughly $64 on average, with spikes of up to 70% reported last summer.
The clearest example came on a Miami to Charlotte flight checked on December 15. A solo traveller would have paid $496 for a Main Cabin seat. Add just one more passenger to the booking and the same fare dropped to $155, with Basic Economy available at $100. That is a difference of more than $300 for exactly the same seat. Another case in point: a $105 gap on a United flight from Newark to Santa Ana in February.
What makes this odd is the logic. Cruise lines and hotels charging singles more makes some sense — a solo guest still occupies a room built for two. On a plane, everyone gets their own seat regardless of group size, so the premium looks arbitrary. The theory, according to View From The Wing, is that solo flyers are likelier to be business travellers with less price sensitivity, but plenty of solo flyers are simply holidaymakers or people visiting family.
There is history here. Thrifty Traveler first flagged the practice in spring 2025, and the backlash prompted carriers to back down. By July of that year, though, United had quietly reinstated solo pricing, and a year on, both United and American are still at it — more consistently than before. Meanwhile, the report found Alaska Airlines, Delta and Southwest are not charging singles extra on the routes tested.
The irony is thick. Both airlines have recently promoted features aimed at solo travellers. United has touted app tools like wayfinding and agent-on-demand, while American rolled out a seating-preference feature this month to help solo passengers dodge middle seats at check-in. A better shot at an aisle seat is nice, but it rings hollow when you are paying a three-figure penalty for the privilege of booking alone.
For travellers, the practical takeaway is simple: if you are flying solo within or from the US, check the price with two passengers in the search before you pay. If the per-person fare drops when you add a phantom companion, you know the route is one where the airline is pricing against singles — and it may be worth comparing Delta, Southwest or Alaska, or booking with a second (refundable or dummy) passenger where the fare rules allow. Prices across the board are already up this year thanks to fuel costs, so an avoidable solo surcharge is one expense worth working around.
