Large Price Differential Between Basic and Main Cabin
 

I am finding a price difference of over 100% between basic and Main Cabin between STL-PHL for November 13th. Basic is $277 and MC is $475. Wow! I have never seen such a large delta. Is this an anomaly? It seem extraordinary.

I've seen some bigger distortions for non-stop DFW flights to some places (last summer saw some DFW-ATL for 99-150$ BE, ~$300 for MC).

Whenever I add in a connecting flight the difference seems to go to only like 20 dollars though....

I've seen 2x deltas quite often. Remember BE fares don't often show up on (internal) corporate travel sites or online corporate travel sites (such as CWT). Some leisure travelers (like me when I book personal travel) won't buy BE fares for various reasons. If seats aren't selling based upon the RM model then AA will lower fares but of course will offer them as BE fares. At some point the delta between the 2 fare classes might begin to close.

Wouldn’t a 100% differential put MC at $554? Either way I agree that is one of the biggest differences I’ve seen.

On DCA to NYC, I‘ve seen $149 to $600+ deltas on super last minute fares.

Those deltas are likely an apples vs. oranges situation. If you are comparing BE to the most restrictive Main Cabin fare, the delta tends to not be that large (although growing). But, in this case, it is possible that the lowest available fare buckets in Main Cabin are not on the lower end because they have been purchased and thus OP is looking at a BE to mid or high-range fare.

There are many businesses (and individuals) who simply will not purchase BE fares. Thus, BE is its own market. Others, like OP, do look at the delta and then have a decision to make on flexibility, seat assignment, and the rest of the features of a ticket.

Or AA is undercutting themselves with an uncapped BE. In the last several months, in my experience, Group 9 is a sizable number of people on the aircraft. That cannot be helping their margins.

Not usual to see that differential out of PHL. I regularly see ~$500 differentials for midweek quick trips, i.e. PHL-CLT or PHL-DFW with a Tuesday or Wednesday departure and a Wednesday/Thursday return. Clearly targeting biz travelers. I've seen PHL-CLT main cabin at $600+ and a BE ticket at around ~$100 - $150.

Yeah, the ‘high-priced’ BE ticks me off. If I have to do BE, I want it to be real cheap. That’s a kick in the nads to pay a much higher price but still not have seat selection etc... $20-$30 above BE each way should be a non-BE ticket

Concur still shows us BE, but we’re allowed to spend $100 beyond it each way before it gets flagged...

I also think that fares that at the onset of BE would have been Main Cabin (like what the OP pointed out) are now coded as BE. AA is saying if you want a seat selection, full credit of miles, and the ability to change flights (with a fee of course) pay up. But yeah if flyers are not opting for that (and the occasional flyer probably wouldn't) then yes AA is probably being forced into more BE sales.

AA flies many routes lacking true competition from legacy airlines. E.g. STL, CLT, PHL.
But, some of those routes have competition from LCC e.g. Spirit, SouthWest or Frontier which some corporate programs forbid or alternate airports (e.g. ACY/TTN vs. PHL).
As a result - I believe they are pricing for the audience as a corporate travel require to fly out Monday AM and return Thursday PM will pay $600. A leisure travelers is comparing AA with in-cabin baggage vs. a LLC without in-cabin baggage.

The AA BE fare is basically a match of WN's $139 ($147 with connection) WGA fares. However, having a hub on one end (and a former hub on the other), AA knows it can extract a large differential from it's regular frequent flyers when upfaring to main cabin. You can find more extreme examples when AA sometimes matches ULCC fares with BE from it's hubs. DL also matches WN's WGA fares on this route with it's BE fares, but the differential is DL's standard $35 each way as these aren't captive markets for DL. I've yet to see a differential larger than $35 each way for DL on domestic routes (other than oddball corner cases with broken fares). But then DL does not generally match the ULCC fares. There are a few cases where it is less than $35 on DL out of competitive markets like SEA and BOS when DL is going against AS and B6 routes (AS often has a smaller differential and B6 has yet to introduce BE fares).

I suspect AA is maximizing revenue for the route. If they could sell it for a higher price, they would

I'm not sure that they are. DL is managing to produce more revenue than AA despite operating a smaller fleet.

On a single flight, they could be maximizing it. But by overselling BE, they could be axing their own feet too across the board.

I've seen CLT-PHL basic economy price $150 and main cabin $1,150 for the same flights. The painful part was corporate policy dictated I pay $600 to connect in Richmond due to purchase of basic economy being prohibited and the price difference for connecting.