4 ms·

Seems like a great idea to me. Creating a market where one doesn't currently exist. As a weekly passenger, I've always wondered why the airline can bribe someon

Seems like a great idea to me. Creating a market where one doesn't currently exist. As a weekly passenger, I've always wondered why the airline can bribe someone to take the next flight, but I can't. If I want to get on a full flight and another traveler is willing to sell his seat for [Cost] + $50 and I'm willing to buy it for [Cost] + $75 everybody wins. The traveler gets $50, the airline $25, and I get home a little sooner for a price I'm willing to pay. I don't know why people are casting this as "airline greed".

jerf 16y ago
John Galt, I should hardly have to explain to you that some small number of people simply hate free markets, and a much larger number have no idea how they actually work.
- johngalt 16y ago
  I'd say it's more an attitude of entitlement. "The airline used to give you $200 to rebook, now they give you less!" As if the airline owed them the opportunity to take the next flight. If anything this will allow the airline to overbook much more aggressively. Giving people the opportunity to take that money more often, and if anything make more than the old method overall. Of course when that happens the story will change to "The rich get to travel whenever they want and the poor are stuck waiting!" Or "Ticket speculators are increasing ticket prices so the poor can't travel!"
  - eru 16y ago
    In reality, like in many markets, speculators will probably lose money more often than they'll make it.
- rprasad 16y ago
  There once was an airline which operated under those principles. PeopleExpress, Bus of the American Skies, used to line people up and simply ship them off on the next available flight. People could (and would) jump ahead in the line by paying someone ahead of them to switch places. You had to pay additional fees for everything except your seat. Like all a rabid experiments in brutal capitalism, PeopleExpress went bankrupt.

jerf 16y ago

John Galt, I should hardly have to explain to you that some small number of people simply hate free markets, and a much larger number have no idea how they actually work.

johngalt 16y ago
I'd say it's more an attitude of entitlement. "The airline used to give you $200 to rebook, now they give you less!" As if the airline owed them the opportunity to take the next flight. If anything this will allow the airline to overbook much more aggressively. Giving people the opportunity to take that money more often, and if anything make more than the old method overall. Of course when that happens the story will change to "The rich get to travel whenever they want and the poor are stuck waiting!" Or "Ticket speculators are increasing ticket prices so the poor can't travel!"
- eru 16y ago
  In reality, like in many markets, speculators will probably lose money more often than they'll make it.
rprasad 16y ago
There once was an airline which operated under those principles. PeopleExpress, Bus of the American Skies, used to line people up and simply ship them off on the next available flight. People could (and would) jump ahead in the line by paying someone ahead of them to switch places. You had to pay additional fees for everything except your seat. Like all a rabid experiments in brutal capitalism, PeopleExpress went bankrupt.