By the way, of the analogies I've used, I still like "Supercow versus Mediocre-cow" back about eight posts or so, the best.

Is it the perfect analogy? I'm not sure, even now. It features the seller, which is to say the farmer, being left with a less valuable cow in his barn than the one he thought he was going to retain. He has been the victim of not just deception on the part of the buyer, but actual fraud on the part of the buyer - the buyer's justification to the contrary notwithstanding.

Whereas in the buyer-gets-off-at-the-intermediate-stop situation, the airline is left with an unexpectedly empty seat, on the leg C to B. Is this empty seat the same thing as the farmer's being left with the mediocre cow?

The problem with ALL of the analogies, even mine about the cows, is that we are talking about a service, not a good, when it comes to passage on an airline. Nobody actually buys a seat, rather, they rent it, specifically, they rent the right to occupy that seat while the airplane moves from a specific place to place, as scheduled at a particular time.

So, buyer's use of that seat is important, since the seller is trying to sell rental leases, of a sort, on that use of that seat. When buyer occupies seat for less of the journey than expected, the **empty** seat C to B represents lost **opportunity** to the seller: Seller has been rendered unable to sell that leg C to B, because seller believed the associated seat to be occupied by the buyer of route A to B via C. At the same time, the **occupied** seat A to C also represents lost **opportunity** to the seller: seller hasn't been able to sell the seat at the higher A to C price, this time because the seat was supposedly being occupied by a buyer of the A to B via C leg.

Is depriving someone of an opportunity a crime? I'm not a lawyer, but I'd say, probably not. Still, if the lost opportunity comes as a result of the buyer deceiving the seller, the relationship between the two parties could be damaged. Damaged relationships can result in lost opportunities to the buyer, if seller gets cheesed off badly enough. To make a long story short, acting in ways that can damage relationships can make for risky practice.