The OP seems to agree on charging different people different prices, but disagrees on who.

Corporations already spend much more than most retail renters, with thousands of people renting from expensive airports all over the world each week. Same for hotels. Hence the big discounts not offered to casual retail customers.

The OP might be alluding to this: If the corporate rates go up, business travelers absolutely have to go somewhere and so will pay whatever it takes. But if retail rates go up, the customers are more likely to run away.

The fact of the matter is, just like the tyre industry (which now has to discount by 55-60% to everyone), the car-rental and hotel businesses have screwed themselves into a position where very few people are prepared to pay the full rate! (You can even pick up a 35% voucher code for car hire, or "Pay for 3 nights get the 4th free" voucher from your local supermarket!)

With all these offers abounding, if someone who hasn't picked up a coupon happens to find a voucher code on the worldwide wonder, why shouldn't they use it? The company concerned is the bigger fraudster for loading its prices unfairly in the first place.

Is it unfair to load prices based on differential utilization?

So for instance, if a hotel has 50 rooms available for a holiday weekend, they offer the first 10 a month in advance at a 20% pre-pay discount, shunted under the table to Priceline and Hotwire. Then the next 10 with a 15% advance booking discount. Then the next 10 at a 10% discount. Now the rooms are starting to dwindle, 30 out of 50 taken. No discount for the remainder, and a $25 price hike for rooms 40-45. At room 45, the Internet lists them as sold out. Rooms 46-50 are double what the person in room number 1 paid, to preserve inventory for the real needy last minute takers.

By the way, economics says that discounts are not always what they appear to be. It's a form of anchoring. Quote a high price, and then offer a discount, that is actually the price the business is willing to accept for that customer. The high anchor price then makes the customer think they're getting a relatively good deal.

So, who is the one defrauding who?

I had a fitted kitchen salesman at my house one night offering me a fantastic 65% discount which expired at midnight! While he was sitting on my sofa, helping himself to our nice cream scones and tea, he pretended to phone his boss and then announced that he would offer us 75% off - "but only if I signed the order form tonight and he was able to fax it into the office from my house!"

I smiled, and agreed, asking if I could just see his price list first to check that the correct discount was being applied! Naturally, the deal couldn't go ahead because none of these firms actually work to a price list so 65% off or 75% off means jack!

So, bealine, any British Airways corporate codes you can share with us to help reduce the fares your employer is charging?

Airlines (except perhaps non-IATA) don't work that way.

We agree "Route Rebates" with selected businesses that promise a certain level of business. At the end of the year, (or quarterly for the larger corporates), the rebate is paid (which is only a percent or two anyway - no big deal unless your travel expenditure runs into millions of dollars!) If the travel spend hasn't been as large as that promised, the rebate doesn't happen!

Our discounted fares work in the time-honoured tradition of "the earlier you book, the less you pay". That way, Mum, Dad and Auntie Flo get exactly the same opportunity at purchasing cheap tickets as Sheikh Al Maktoum!