Despite what some people seem to believe, a PHL-PHX and a PHL-DFW flight are not equivalent (E.g., "how can PHL-DFW be more expensive than PHL-PHX??? It's longer!!!!"). They are not commodities. You're not buying a ticket to fly 1284 miles. Origin, destination, departure time, aircraft type, etc., etc. all differentiate flights.

In the very few instances where this was the case (East coast shuttle, anyone), these barriers did come down.


Because those aren't the terms of the item that the airline is selling. It's as simple as that.

If they wanted to make them resellable they could. But they don't. So you can't.

Anyone is free to offer gold for sale with a contract term that you can't sell it to anyone else. They chose not to.

No one is forced to buy from them, so how do they have "all the benefits"? If no one likes what they're selling, no one will buy it. Then they'll change or go out of business. Other market participants can offer competing products and take their customers.

Being able to resell tickets isn't exactly the hill I'd die on, but in the U.S. the airlines really do hold all the power leaving consumers with very little. That's thanks to decade of cozy politics and America's extreme pro-corporate culture and political system in general. There desperately needs to be a passenger bill of rights to curtail the most egregious airline abuses. This particular issue wouldn't be part of it, but it did originally come about as a result of that stark imbalance of power between individuals and corporations in America.