Originally Posted by fastair

And so too, are our competitors, who would love to have booking loads, booking curves, distribution of inventory algorithms ...

Imagine I was an AA inventory planner. I know that the GDS systems are selling both a UA flight and an AA flight to the same destination. Now let's say they also knew exactly how we were to allocate the booking classes exactly, and how many people were booked. One could easily mirror inventory to maximize revenue based on a competitors actions. The anti-trust divisions of the federal govt would not like UA and AA coordinating inventory and pricing too much...they might even call it anticompetitive. Some have in fact postulated that ATPCO and universal fare publication is itself anticompetitive. Free flow of information between competitors regarding things like this is frowned upon, and by giving that 411 out to anyone who asks, is in effect, sharing that same info with a competitor.