Originally Posted by
FlyingEgghead
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.
Well I suspect as flight time approaches, if sales levels are below target, they will release more I inventory on nonstop itineraries, but as it will be within the shorter advance purchase windows, the I fares can be much higher. So yes, the more buckets they have, the more flexibility they have, but as the aircraft only has 20 seats I suspect they're fine using J/D only on all but the most off-peak flights far out.