Originally Posted by
SeeBuyFly
How does Amazon keep prices low while being so generous with refunds? Well, it loses billions each year, but makes it up on volume ha ha. Seriously, once it has eliminated most brick-and-mortar competitors and when its growth has leveled off, it may change its tune.
Amazon used to lose a lot of money, but now they're reasonably profitable. In Q4, their net income was ~$3B, which is more than the entire US airline industry.
The airlines do not see good service at all price points (including seat comfort, food, drinks, etc) as a route to greater profits, because when they have tried it, it has not worked.
FWIW,
Delta has been making some noises about making tickets more flexible since these sorts of fees tend to make people unhappy. Who knows if they'll actually do something or what it will mean, but OP's situation (allowing a customer to simply drop a one-way segment of a ticket where it doesn't affect the price of the remaining ticket) seems like a place where airlines could make changes without compromising their ability to engage in effective price discrimination.