From: jishnu@nospam.verizon.net   
      
   On 5/20/2015 2:03 PM, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:   
   > On Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 1:00:34 PM UTC-4, Stephen Sprunk wrote:   
   >   
   >> The airlines were probably already (almost?) completely booked, and the   
   >> last few seats are _always_ crazy expensive.  That is standard yield   
   >> management, not "gouging".   
   >   
   > The "yield management" system may be how the prices were developed, but the   
   end result to the consumer was price gouging.   
      
   It is price gouging when the practice is widespread applying to all   
   seats or a very large proportion of the total available inventory. This   
   was not the case at all. Just for the heck of it I checked United   
   between New York area airports and Washington area airports. United is a   
   relatively insignificant player in the market. 7RJs and one 737 per day.   
   On the non stops their price started at a low of around $300 and topped   
   off at something around $650. They had a whole bunch of one stop   
   itineraries changing at all sorts of absurd places taking 4 to 5 hours   
   which were priced higher, some even at around $2000 involving F class.   
   But why would anyone buy such is beyond me. And how someone could   
   characterize that as price gouging is beyond me too. I am sure it was   
   also possible to construct an itinerary that went EWR - LHR - IAD for   
   $2500 or even $5000 in J. But why would anyone consider it?   
      
   Now of course NY Times could quote the higher price and cry "price   
   gouging" but you got to look at the whole picture of what are the   
   relative number of seats actually sold at what price before buying into   
   the alarmist story.   
      
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