But because there's no real market for airplane tickets--the airlines basically forbid secondary transactions--we're forced into a world of centralized planning, and by an entity that's fairly incompetent at that.
This entire thing would be solved if plane tickets could be bought and sold in some sort of marketplace. The airlines could even take a cut of every transaction!
It's baffling to me that the overbooking problem is solved at the airport, minutes before take-off.
Imagine instead a world where you could buy and sell plane tickets.
- On purchase, I could set a reserve price for which I'd be willing to sell my plane ticket, and have the price go up as the time of flight got near.
- Late to the airport--perhaps I could trade tickets with someone on a later flight that wants to leave sooner?
- I have a flexible lifestyle. Standing order for tickets to the beach|family|wherever at a low price, as long as I have 5 hour warning before flight time. Gonna miss your flight? I'll buy it.
Let the airlines take a cut of every secondary transaction and let app developers & market makers figure out the use-cases.