[jimworcs]

This has been covered many times in previous postings. I don't agree with it, but he logic is this:

The legacy carriers operate complex monopolies via large hubs. To feed these hubs they must encourage large numbers of "transit" passengers, who make some of the flights viable. The purpose of these hubs is to lock out substantial competitors in defined markets and create monopoly or duopoly situations for the airlines.

This creates a need to fill seats for flights which would otherwise be unviable. They therefore charge high prices for direct flights from the hub, as people living around the hub would be prepared to pay this rather than have to change planes elsewhere. However, for those passengers who come into the hub as transit passengers, these need to be incentivised to travel via the hub, so the airlines offer these seats at lower prices.

This creates anomolies in pricing. For example, to fly from say Washington to San Francisco direct might be a high price, but to fly with Continental from Washington to San Francisco via Newark would be cheap. The people who lived in the New York region however were paying high prices for the direct flight from Newark to San Francisco. So, many would book the flight from Washington to San Francisco via Newark, throw away the Washington to Newark part of the ticket and pay considerably less for the Newark to San Francisco portion than if they had purchased it directly. The airlines, desperate to sustain their monopoly fortress hubs, quickly banned the practice by making it a term and condition of travel that if you did not use the whole portion of the ticket, it was forfeit.

There is only logic in this model if you are "fortress hub" legacy carrier. Southwest doesn't do this because it is a low cost "point to point" airline.

Don't misunderstand me.. the only logic in this system is to sustain the monopolistic tendancies of the legacy carriers, and to rip off customers. That is what you get when you fail to regulate markets properly. Sooner or later, we have to hope that Congress will wake up and smell the coffee.... but I don't hold out much hope, because the airlines line their pockets with "donations" or bribes as they are more commonly known.