Originally Posted by
Zamees
Resurfacing this with a similar question.
And still confused why Delta or most airlines for that matter would not Price Match in some situations.
For example, last minute international trip leaving in 10 hours, plenty of empty seats. Why would they not price match their $2200 ticket to many competitors $1200 ticket(s)? Seems like only upside. Do ticket agents at the airport have any additional authority on this?
If I'm standing at the Delta ticket agent, phone in hand showing them a price difference of $1000 for a flight that leaves in 5 hours, how is it logical to not find a better fare? Only thing I can think of is it would incentivize people to wait till last minute, and they'd lose money in the long run.
Lots of possible reasons:
- A to B fare on Carrier 1 may be different than A to B fare on Carrier 2 because Carrier 1 would rather sell C to B via A or D to B via A fare.
- Encourages price war between carriers
- Trains consumers to think that price is the only differentiating factor
- Airline would rather use weight allocation / cargo space to ship high-profit cargo
- Price-insensative last-minute business flyers may choose the higher fare anyway if it's reimbursable
- Airline A's flight is at a higher load factor than Airline B's due to earlier fare discounts
- Airline doesn't have the process or system functionality to perform price match
- Giving agents price match authority over fares opens up the possibility for abuse
- ... (the list goes on)