Originally Posted by
Often1
Another poor analogy (don't feel bad - there are 10,000 of them on FT and all equally poor). The carrier situation is about demand for travel between a city pair and the airfare is established in this free market economy by the rules of supply and demand. The carrier charges too much or little and the carrier goes out of business (just try the customer service lines for Eastern, Northwest, Braniff, Pan Am and so on if you want to double-check).
Agreed. The bucket and spade argument is also demand and supply driven; the pricing set according to what my supplier charges me.
I have read the GAO report, and I agree with its findings. But what I think most people forget is that the fare rules (and T&Cs) have gotten complicated and unhelpful to both sides because we started with the archaic IATA pre-deregulation system, then gradually came up with new rules every time someone came up with a loophole in fare pricing or rules. Llike the tax code. Why not rip it up and start with a sensible system. I firmly believe that if you were redesigning from a blank sheet you would do it very differently.
As you note, you are free to to sell any product(s) for any price you choose and on any conditions you want. Buyers are free to accept those or reject them and go elsewhere if they choose.
Agree completely. I would point out that airlines make more out of their various T&Cs than most other businesses do. Not just in back-to-backs and hidden-city, but on change fees, re-routing, cancellation, refunds, etc etc. The rules are about as complicated and often contradictory as the tax code. That's why FT flourishes!
The general misperception in hidden-city is that the carrier can require a pax to fly a segment. The carrier cannot. The sole issue at hand is, "what is the fare?" The fare from A-B is $100 and the fare from A-C is $75, it just so happens there is a connection at B. If you want to fly A-B, you pay $100 and if you want to fly A-C, you pay $75. If you buy an A-C ticket and decide to end at B, you owe $25. It's that simple.
Again, I agree with you. I will modify my beach toy example accordingly. You can tear open the fishnet bag and take only the bucket, I don't care what you do with the shovel and tractor (maybe I'll sell them to a standby customer), but you are going to pay me $1 extra on top of the $4. I will come after you with a credit card recharge.
FT is full of rants about this, there is a well-written GAO report on the topic and it's the subject of all kinds of analysis. It all comes down to a free-market economy. If you don't like HCT, you don't fly carriers who insist on it.
I don't think you qualify as a true FTer unless you have done at least one BTB and one HCT!