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.
They won't because they have their proven business model and it seems to be making them lots of money. Also, Delta has a relatively good Business class product (Delta One) and they would rather preserve its value and exclusitivity and not sell them cheap or upgrade anyone not using an instrument. Finally, 10 hours till departure time is still a lot of time to sell more fares. They can also let NRSA take the seats which are not sold or allow others to SDC. Oh.. unclaimed seats in the seat map does not reflect the actual seats sold.