Hi Yall,

From what I know, thesilb is correct on his 2 points. And I'll add a 3rd (though I think this situation looks more like example #1)...

Yeild Management software "marries" together city pairs. It doesn't think only of the availibilty of individual flights. The only way I can think of to explain this is by using a hypothetical situation:
You wish to travel DFW to LAX, but not at full coach fare.
All of the DFW - LAX flights are sold out of discount seats.
You know of a connection thru AUS but checking the availibilty of the DFW to AUS flight shows that discount seats on it are also gone.
For the heck of it, you try "multiple stops" option and check availibility DFW - AUS - LAX and surprise !!! The same DFW to AUS flight now shows discount inventory!

Yeild Management's thinking is:
DFW to LAX is in an oversold situation, no discount seats avalable; but if I can find someone willing to buy a ticket at full coach, I'll gladly take the $600 even if I have to pay a $300 oversale voucher to another passenger.
DFW to AUS is getting kinda full tonite. It's not oversold but let's not sell any more seats at the "Southwest" discount rate, I think we can win by holding out for a higher fare.
AUS to LAX is half empty; at this point I'll take any reasonable fare (this is where the Internet specials, Priceline.com, etc come into play).
I have a passenger looking for a discount seat DFW - AUS - LAX. Do I want to sell that AUS - LAX seat so bad that I'll give up on holding back for a higher fare on the DFW - AUS leg ?

Possibly CO's EWR - PHX was oversold in coach (it could still show some availbilty in the higher coach fares ... ref DFW - LAX above) but the HP flight was wide open, so availability for anything connecting to it could be "loosened". Even if you were thinking of buying a first class seat that day, it would still be to the airline's advantage to "sway" you over to the open flight (they may wat to hold that F seat on the full trip for an "operational" upgrade which is cheaper than paying an oversale voucher).

Disclaimer: A few years back, I was a gate agent for one of the majors; my knowledge of yeild management is also about 5 years old.



[This message has been edited by steve64 (edited 06-09-2000).]