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Comment by nmjohn | Hacker News Reader

> and people cheating like this screw with the airline's

No. That is not cheating.

The airlines offer something for sale and I buy it. If buying a third ticket makes my entire trip cheaper - it would be illogical for me not to buy it. And whether or not I use it is entirely up to me.

The problem is the airlines are using inefficient and illogical pricing - for a whole host of reasons including incompetency and unwillingness to adapt to a changing marketplace.

> to keep flying some-what affordable to everyone.

Saying this keeps flying affordable for all is a "feel-good" argument - it has no substance.

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> The problem is the airlines are using inefficient and illogical pricing - for a whole host of reasons including incompetency and unwillingness to adapt to a changing marketplace.

Please read the presentation I linked to before asserting that the pricing is "illogical" and a result of "incompetency".

I read through it. What strikes me is that the airlines have intentionally created a system so complex that the most basic task of getting a price to fly from one city to another at a given time is apparently provably impossible to do properly. This isn't some part of nature that's complex because that's the way that it is, this is a system entirely designed by humans. It's kinda like putting somebody in a life-threatening situation, then saving them from it, then claiming that you saved their life.

Through the whole creation of this system, and whatever steps it went through to end up being this complex, did nobody ever say "Guys, this is all just too freakin' complex. Why don't we simplify it so that we don't need a bunch of geniuses to figure out a way for a person to buy a ticket on one of our flights?"

You're right that the system is totally artificially complex, but as I wrote before, from what I read this complexity is solving the problem of how to let someone other than extremely rich people to fly without going broke. That is, flying is so expensive in terms of jet fuel, crew salaries, maintenance and airport operations (and of course, bureaucracy) that they invented this extremely sophisticated system that basically makes the businessmen subsidize tickets for tourists.

I really need to find that source.

No, you are not buying what they are offering. They are offering a ticket on certain conditions, which include not doing this. If you do not accept those conditions then you are not allowed to buy the ticket.

> No, you are not buying what they are offering. They are offering a ticket on certain conditions, which include not doing this. If you do not accept those conditions then you are not allowed to buy the ticket.

They can state whatever conditions they want - that doesn't mean anyone has to follow them, they are legal, they are enforceable, or they can do anything about them.

Moreover, what if I have a three-leg trip and after the second flight learn that my sister who happens to live in city #2 is in the hospital with a 50% chance to live? I'm not taking that third flight, I'm going straight to the hospital and will consider myself lucky I ended up in that city.

There are far to many extenuating circumstances that an airline could not possibly be aware to actually have this policy.

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