Originally Posted by
Often1
There are hundreds if not thousands of these threads published about AS and every other air carrier in the world. They all revolve around a central theme, e.g. that the air carrier is nuts to sell Ticket X for $Y. The post then accuses the carrier of "gouging" for charging what a purely market-driven system sets the price at. It's not gouging.
"Gouging" is an opinion, not a fact. I'm fine if you disagree with my opinion. Of course, if you were looking at the route and that fare to buy, your opinion might be different. Notably, there is an AA flight that leaves about an hour later selling for $120 which might call into question AS RM's assessment of the market, but of course I don't know what (or if) they are thinking. There is also the question of bad IT that has been raised in other contexts, which was another reason I noted this particular fare. Some of the other explanations for why AS might intentionally set such an apparently anomalous fare make a lot more sense than the simplistic "hey, it's a free market" theory.