Why and how do airlines do this? Two things.

[Yong Fang]

My father was a retired airline pilot and I have been on airplanes and airports since before I could walk. I will offer my opinion that flying has always sucked, there was never a “golden age” of comfort and prime rib. Just small seats, stuffy compartment and weird ass food.

But because of my father and my own experiences, I know a little bit about aviation. But I don’t understand how airlines work. Two examples….

1. Overbooking. How can this happen? How can the airline “overbook” a flight? If the plane has 400 seats, the airline can sell or give away 400 tickets. In June I took a flight on United in June from San Francisco to Shanghai and the agent was asking people over the loudspeaker if any would like to take another flight since they were three over. Huh?

This even happened to me in Lusaka, Zambia where I was checking in to get on Emerites Airlines, and an employee asked me if I would prefer to leave tomorrow. Why? Got on the flight to Dubai and went home. Makes no sense.

2. Something called “skiplagging”. I can offer an experience I had before this asinine word entered the lexicon to explain what it is. I was looking for a ticket from Shanghai to Chicago and then Chicago home. Found a ticket to Chicago, and then discovered that a flight journey from Shanghai-Chicago-Los Angeles was cheaper than just Chicago. So I booked the Shanghai-Chicago-Los Angeles flight and just got off in Chicago.

But what I did has turned into a “problem” for the airline with at least one website that researches multi leg flights versus one leg flights to see which is cheaper.

To me, this is asinine and again, makes no sense. Why would the flight from Shanghai just to Chicago be expensive than taking the flight to Chicago and then Los Angeles? How does that make any sense whatsoever? Why do the airlines do this? To sell a cheaper ticket to someone cost conscious who doesn’t mind the layover if they get to the destination to save money? Does the airline lose money by booking the customer to an extra flight?

Since this is a TV chat board, do people who run airlines have the mentality of Michael Scott of The Office? Because in many ways airlines don’t make sense.

[rusty spike]

I'll try to answer Q #1 about overbooking. With computers and all sort of data management, the airlines can predict what % of the flying public will cancel. Sooo they try to maximize revenue by overselling each flight with the goal to have every flight full or 98% full. And what happens when there are flights than run at 50% or less? The airlines find ways to encourage fuller flights~ schedule less flights and increase the fares.

Not related to flights, but my local grocery store closely tracks every sale. I used to buy a brand of frozen French Toast. I liked it so much that every two months, I was depleting their store's inventory UNTIL... they no longer reordered it and assigned the shelf space to some other product. I went to complain to the assistant manager. That's when I learned the ugly truth. While it was true that I and possibly another shopper in my area was buying it, the truth is that I represented a poor marketing value. Basically, the store's strategy suggests that it's better marketing to have 8 different persons buy a single item over a longer period of time than a single person like me (rusty) buy out the entire inventory in shorter time. The manager asked me- What's the store going to do if you stop shopping here or you get tired of French Toast? Yep, we're stuck with inventory that no one else wants.

[stevea]

I blame the airlines for skiplagging. I think i read about an effort in one instance where they pounced on a person trying to do it. I suppose they found another one way ticket and figured out what he was doing, and the got out the hangman's noose.

If they want to stop the practice, then do sensible pricing.

Overbooking is easier to understand, IMO. And the practice isn't limited to airlines. It's probably well-researched enough to work much of the time, but it's sure not fun to be the one caught without a seat.

[GoldenTV]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

2. Something called “skiplagging”. I can offer an experience I had before this asinine word entered the lexicon to explain what it is. I was looking for a ticket from Shanghai to Chicago and then Chicago home. Found a ticket to Chicago, and then discovered that a flight journey from Shanghai-Chicago-Los Angeles was cheaper than just Chicago. So I booked the Shanghai-Chicago-Los Angeles flight and just got off in Chicago.

That probably wouldn't work if one have Checked in luggage since the luggage will be tagged from Shanghai to Los Angeles and you would not be able to retract your luggage in Chicago.