The fair, evenhanded approach of charging one price for every seat on the plane has been tried -- by PeopleExpress, in the '80s -- and it failed utterly. As soon as a competitor offers the same seat to the same place for five bucks less, the war is lost. Bargain-hunters always glom onto the lowest fare, no matter what. That behavior forces airlines to cater to 'em, or die -- and also charge more to people who are less bargain-focused. It's well known how American's sophisticated yield management systems ran People Express, which had a far less advanced IT infrastructure, out of business. That "price-gouging" you see is actually the free market talkin'.