Originally Posted by
physicsdude
Rent-seeking would be the practice of charging for seat-selection in the first place. What you describe is the definition of supply and demand in a situation of rent-seeking especially in your third paragraph where AA raises the prices of preferred/MCE seats since there are only paid seats left but there are people who would still need an assigned seat.
You, me, and a lot of fellow customers agree that this practice is terrible and a lot of us hate coughing up extreme amounts just for a selected seat. However, it's probably more effective if you tell an AA rep of this rather than getting worked up at a random person's comment.
I've told AA my thoughts on this before; we can all obviously see the effect of that.
My intent in my post to just to provide the counterpoint that pricing is not based on supply and demand of the seats. The supply is meaningless and the demand largely doesn't exist. It's more akin to a form of rent seeking, in which AA sets a supply and price point in a manipulative way in an effort to maximize an extra income stream without providing any extra in services.