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Opinion: Why airlines hate hidden-city ticketing (and maybe you should too)
Airfarewatchdog.com founder George Hobica writes why airlines, and possibly paxs, should be weary of the practice. (www.usatoday.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Sounds like sour grapes to me. The seat was paid for. Why do they care if anyone was in it or not?
Actually, if the seat is paid for and no one is in it, it should be a bonus for the airline in reduced weight making for reduced fuel used for the flight.
Another possibility is that the airlines might actually have room for all booked passengers this way and not have to pay anyone to bump them to a later flight saving them anywhere between $200 and $500 per person.
And more elbow room for at least a few passengers.
On at least one airline, the savings can be much greater than $200-$500 per person for an involutary removal when one contemplates the policy for involuntary removal from a flight because it's over-booked. I fly UNITED all the time and they told me the internal policy is 3 times the face value of the ticket price, up to as much as $1400 (or $1700, I can't remember). They also told me the involuntary removal is based on check-in time: last in - first out (LIFO). In other words, the last person to check-in is the first one involuntarily removed. So it seems to me that an empty seat is possible HUGE advantage to the airline...
They are crying over potential after they have already made actual money plus the savings from less weight. They cry over opportunity lost after they creeated the opportunity.
There ya go trying to apply common sense. Knock it off!