What's up with airlines?

Airlines are a little like hotels ... If there is an empty seat on tonight's 6:15 flight from Sydney to Melbourne, once the door is closed and the 'plane has pulled back, that's it. They're not selling that seat to anyone. A bit like an empty hotel room last night - you can't sell it tonight.

Very perishable stock. Strict use by dates.

So why do they go out of their way to make those last unsold tickets as expensive as they can?

I arrived at the airport early and asked if there were seats on the next flight, which was leaving in about 30 minutes. There were, but the airline wanted $140 ($10 more than I paid for the original ticket).

I'm guessing on a Saturday afternoon flight that any seats unsold 30 minutes before departure are going to stay unsold.

Wouldn't it have made sense to put me on that flight, thus filling an empty seat, improving customer satisfaction and maybe giving the airline a better chance of selling my seat on a flight 90 minutes hence?

Nope, that ain't the way it works.

And for $140 I decided to sit in the lounge and send tweets instead of getting home 90 minutes earlier.


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Location:Somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne