Originally Posted by
FLLDL
Last minute pricing for intl business class is often crazy, and this is hardly limited to DL. Last minute US-China/or HKG in F is often over $20,000 USD on UA or CX.
The airlines know that someone booking a US-PVG flight in biz for tomorrow pretty much has to be there and can either expense it or bill it out (ie not price sensitive).
Seems insane to pay $17k for a plane ticket, but can be a small cost relative to a multi-million dollar deal or the cost of not bringing an idled facility back on line etc etc.
^^ I've been in several situations where the client's question is "How fast can you get here?", not "How much is it going to cost?"
It's an understanding of typically who's buying what at the last minute.