Originally Posted by
STS-134
There is no rationale for airline ticket pricing.
Yes, there is. You go on to explain it yourself:
They do it because they can. If they figure out that the market can bear a higher price for a ticket from A to B compared to a ticket from A to C via B, then they will charge more for A to B than A to C via B.
Originally Posted by
pruss2ny
A to Hub routing costs $200
Hub to C routing costs $500
A to C (routing through Hub) costs $1400.
genuinely curious if this is a bug or if there is a rationale for this pricing.
It is not a bug. The rationale is that the airline has determined that the market will support a $1400 fare from A to C, which is what it is selling. That the routing happens to pass through B based on its route structure is irrelevant (to the airline). It could just have easily have passed through X, Y or Z.