JS wrote, "Hindukid, charging more for a phone call at 2 PM than 10 PM is just as reasonable as charging more for a 5 PM flight than a 10 PM flight. Supply and demand in action. Price discrimination is when two people pay different fares to fly on the same 5 PM flight, or the same 10 PM flight."

Both examples are IMHO examples of supply and demand in action. Whether or not what the airlines do is "price discrimination" depends on how you define the term. There's nothing inherently bad about price discrimination (it's not like racial or religious discrimination). Why should not the airline charge what the traffic will bear? People who are willing to plan 2 weeks ahead, or to travel late at night or on inconvenient routes, get discounts. Many of them would not be full-fare customers anyway, so the airline gains by selling them the discounted seat. Conversely the last-minute business customer, for whom the air ticket is part of the cost of doing business and not (up to a point) a discretionary expense, pays a stiff price for the ticket. The fact that the business traveler pays the stiff price shows that s/he considers the ticket to be worth it -- to produce that much advantage to the business. (If not then s/he wouldn't make the trip.)

Put another way: the same SFO-JFK-SFO trip is worth different amounts to different people. If I learn today that I need to be in Korea on Monday on business, then I'm going to pay several thousand dollars to get there and back -- not happily, but willingly. OTOH if I want to vacation in Korea then I will go somewhere else if the only RT ticket I can get is $4000 instead of $600.

The Saturday, minimum stay, and advance purchase rules are airlines' attempts to sort out their customers and to get a higher price from business travelers. The rules incidentally catch people traveling to funerals and other short-notice emergencies, but those non-business travelers aren't whom the rules are directed at.



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"Yes, but at least mine will be found in a first class seat." -- Peattie and Taylor