Originally Posted by
ejay
I'm sorry if this has already been covered, but I couldn't find it. I'm just curious about why American Airlines requires the exact same routing to SDC or SDSB. You would think they'd be happy to put passengers into empty seats and to keep those passengers happy by providing more choices. I would think American would also generate more money by charging the $75.00 fee where more people would opt to take a different route to get between the same origin and destination points. What am I missing?
I'm guessing to prevent people from booking a lower cost routing and then switching to a higher cost routing (e.g., nonstop). That said, I don't think this would apply for standby since, as you mention, that seat is going out empty anyway. But I think it's also about training customers to buy what they want and not try to game the system by booking lower cost fares and then switching them.
Curious to hear others chime in.