Originally Posted by ezefllying

The airline industry may not engender great sympathy, especially given their many hard-nosed policies regarding fees and refunds, but I think this behavior qualifies as pretty distasteful -- both the ticket purchase and the subsequent gloating.

I don't think most airlines set out with the goal of tricking passengers into paying more (I'm not considering Ryanair's or Spirit's BP-reprint policies; Gizmodo can have at them), and I think the U.S. DOT and the media would be rightfully up in arms if the airlines did attempt such subtle, de facto fraud through deception.

Likewise, I think it's wrong to commit to a ticket purchase with the intent of never using the ticket and instead receiving financial gain from it. You deprive the airline of revenue and prevent another passenger from purchasing the ticket.

And let's see this in human terms. A loss in revenue is a loss to average employees, not merely some executive's severance package (not that a customer has a right to deprive an executive of his compensation, but, to be honest, I don't think most people would feel hugely awful about doing so).

Now, I see things slightly differently if its a game of risk with a truly non-refundable ticket. Buy the ticket the airline offers, accept the risk of losing the ticket value, and occasionally win the small jackpot. It's a game of chance that the airline chooses to play. I don't know exactly how I feel about that.

But with a flexible ticket or one where the passenger can receive a refund, I view it as a means of cheating the system -- and the company out of the revenue it deserves an opportunity to earn.