Originally Posted by
Flying for Fun
We shouldn't confuse fares from A to B with fares from A to C. In reality, the airlines only publish fares from City A to City B. The fact that some flights are direct, some are via connections and some are non-stop is irrelevant. If you are purchasing a fare for a flight that is direct or has a connection with the intent to not complete the flights that you paid for, you have purchased the wrong fare. It is as simple as that.
Any fare differntial is easily calculated.
No it is absolutely not.
Here's just one simplified example:
- I buy a PHL-AUS ticket 8 days before departure: ticket books in Q and has a 7 day AP requirement
- I hidden city bail on my itinerary at the connect point of DFW
- There's no PHL-DFW 7AP fare published
- Q inventory was available on the flow at time of booking but not the local
What's the fare differential? Lowest available fare at time of booking? How will AA go back and see what was, in fact, available inventory in the PHL-DFW local market at my time of booking? If it's highest available fare at time of booking there's no way that will hold water in court if AA sues. No jury would award AA damages based on the Y26 PHL-DFW let alone the Y construction factor fare.
If you think this is a simple exercise, you really do not understand airline pricing and yield management. I do understand it which means that I would never get to be a juror if one of these things ever went to trial. But, realistically, AA is highly unlikely to ever sue for damages in these cases because among those who don't understand the nuances of airline pricing, they might very well say screw the airline and jury nullify or find the contract to be an unconscionable and unenforceable one.
Heck, I could even make a pretty compelling case that AA's economic damages are negligible or negative as the fact of the matter is their costs were decreased by the hidden city passenger. AA still received the full revenue benefit of my hypothetical PHL-DFW-AUS ticket but didn't have to incur the incremental costs of flying me DFW-AUS.