Originally Posted by MarshalN
I thought it is fairly normal for the cheap fares to not so up show far in advance, and only released when it gets somewhat closer to the travel dates (2 months ahead, something like that). It doesn't seem so strange to me.
A few years ago they used to sell the few L fares for example at 330 days out - so if you booked ahead you got it.
Then they changed so they released them on a periodic basis - when they wanted to increase cash quickly (sort of a lottery system as far as the customer was concerned). The fares could change drastically throughout the day and disappear in the middle of the day.
But for this coming year - they have not released any low fares (as far as I can tell) more than a few months out - not even the lottery system I mentioned above. As such, advance bookings are down (by looking a seats maps - with no seats sold for many flighta at the start of the summer season. I believe the new system is holding back seats in hope of selling as many at V + fares, then as the time get close they will dump seats on the less popular flights. Now AA has not be doing this - so it remains to see if CO is going to be successful with this new revenue management concept.