Originally Posted by
Proudelitist
A few reasons. First of all, think of the horror that is concert seating. One they became a tradable commodity, large firms started buying up huge blocks of seats and then reselling them.
travel agencies do this already
sometimes airlines actually block out the seats on the plane (so that the tour group travels together). sometimes they don't
Originally Posted by
seadog83
In all fact aside from the loosest of schedules, my dates were entirely dictated by the cheapest flights.
eurowings has a mystery flight option that's related to this (loose destination but fixed dates)
you pick dates and general theme (beach, party,...). eurowings probably picks/sells off their cheapest tickets to you
https://www.eurowings.com/skysales/B...?culture=en-GB
Originally Posted by
travelmad478
You make an interesting point here, one that airlines could potentially cash in on. They could, in theory, offer cheap-ticket-holders like yourself an option (presumably, with some sort of sweetener to account for the inconvenience) to exchange for a different flight that’s still underbooked if the demand/current price for your original flight is very high.
I don't think airlines overbook that much, to need to invest in this technology
they already have their existing technology (during checkin or boarding, solicit interest on VDBs)