Originally Posted by
LCY8737
That may be the marketing line, but it is decidedly not true. It only reduces the cost for BA. But BA charge as much as they can get away with, which is mostly driven by what other airlines charge and how much passengers are willing to pay.
While cost is the long term lower end of the price point, every airline will try to go above that as much as it can.
I guess your line of argument is that costs and price points are pretty much unconnected. But look it from the other perspective. Imagine a world where BA would never sell a seat twice, and therefore about a quarter or a third of seats went out empty. I doubt you would be trying to maintain that fares would not rise quite sharply in that scenario? Moreover for the seats typically sold twice over, the first sale covers net margin, your second sale is boosting your gross margin. In other words they sell a percentage of cheap seats knowing some won't make it. For very price sensitive customers this is a real lifeline - so long as they don't change their minds.