I'm looking at PHL-LAS flights in June and the 7pm departure from PHL is coming up very high priced (like $1600 round trip) compared to the others. This is on any date I look at in mid June. I checked EF and see that on AA 1987, it is only selling Y and J buckets (both with 7's). Every other bucket I zeroed out. I checked the weeks of 6/6 and 6/13. Random seat map checks show many open seats. Yes, I know open seats don't equate to what's unsold but the seat maps I checked were very wide open - probably because nobody is buying full Y 2 1/2 months in advance.

Would AA have this flight flagged this way to discourage booking if it's a section they may drop/cancel? There is a 4pm flight priced in the "normal" range with all the buckets showing inventory.