Originally posted by JerryFF:
I think the real issue here can be posed with the following question - why is an airline ticket not like a theater ticket? If you buy a theater ticket, it is not refundable, but it is transferable. You can give it (or sell it) to whomever you wish and the theater doesn't care who uses it. The reason airlines care is because of the incredible complexity of airline fares compared with simplicity of theater ticket prices. In a theater, seat 19D on July 12 costs X dollars, no matter who buys it or when they buy it. That is not the case with an airline ticket, as we all know.
An airline ticket purchased two weeks in advance is a lot cheaper than a ticket purchased one day in advance. If the airlines allowed tickets to be transferred, they would lose a lot of money. Last minute airline tickets are expensive because they are usually purchased by business people who often must make last minute decisions. They have no choice and must go, and the airlines take advantage of that fact and charge a lot more money because they know the business person must go and will pay the higher fare.
The advance purchase tickets are a lot cheaper because they are designed to attract the discretionary traveler and fill seats that would otherwise go empty. It is all part of the complex issue of yield management - attempting to fill as many seats as possible and generate the maximum revenue per trip.
If tickets were transferable, individuals (or brokers) could purchase them using advance purchase rules at low fares and resell them at a mark-up that would still be a lot less than the usual walk-up fare.
However, all of this may change this fall with the initiation of a new web site - hotwire.com. Please see recent posting In The News by mileageman (sorry, I couldn't get the URL correct).
[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-05-2000).]
[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-05-2000).]
[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 07-05-2000).]
Thanks for the answer. I think that you are absolutely correct. They certainly could allow me to transfer the ticket to someone using the same time frame of the original purchase of ALLOW ME TO HAVE ANYONE I SELECT USE THE VALUE OF THE UNUSED TICKET TOWARDS ANOTHER PURCHASE.