Considering that the OP is based in the US, the title of the thread is indeed understandable and worth opening a new thread.
US airlines have lost most of their pricing power over the last decades, actually from the first moments after full deregulation, when free pricing was established, IIRC, in January of 1981.
Since then the fierce competition has eroded fare levels and more importantly fare restrictions to todays levels without advance purchase requirements or saturday night stays. In this circumstance, the comment by this poster is interesting
Originally Posted by elitetraveler
This is why AA is so much better with upgrades - I find at the airport if you have a valid upgrade and there are open seats, they will up you - while DL it's back of the bus city unless you pay....
Once again, a perfect example of the state of the US airline industry, where airlines used to give out way too much for free, which resulted in the downward revenue spiral and the simple fact that a certain well educated bunch of travelers get a lot of perks for very little money.
Normally the weaker airlines would leave the market at some point, but not in the US with Ch.11, so under the bottom line, the competiton stays and the percentage of people paying full fare decreases, because bankrupt carriers like NW or DL can afford to charge significantly less being in Ch.11 and/or relax their fare restrictions, like DL ex Germany for example...
Good old Jeffrey Katz, former high shot at Sabre, AA and Swissair and now with Orbitz, IIRC, already critisized the abovementioned scenario nearly 10 years ago, when he described the chances of Swissair to get full fare pax out of ORD against the * alliance competition...at some point, you have to discount like crazy, the question is, if your airline can afford to discount @:-)