Originally Posted by
ijgordon
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but they definitely use 3 buckets in this cabin. It just happens that they don't release a lot of the cheapest bucket for nonstop itineraries. Married segments gives them a lot more control over managing yields. They can also do this with published fares -- i.e., they can have I or even D fares with various restrictions (e.g., only Tues/Wed/Sat, only after 8pm, excluding these specific dates, even round-trip/minimum stay requirements) to further segment pricing.
But because fares are filed by origin and destination, there is no necessary relation between *prices* of a nonstop segment and of a connecting trip that includes that segment. It's all up to AA. So offering a cheaper I fare on, say, BOS-JFK-LAX should not prevent offering a more expensive I fare on JFK-LAX. They don't *have* to call it D just because it's more expensive. Being an I fare does not inherently constrain the price. I meant that *for the JFK-LAX O&D market* they are mostly using 2 buckets instead of 3. As I noted, they may have good reasons for this even though it reduces flexibility a bit.