"As well, there is no consistency of pricing, even within the same airline. You can be on a plane, where almost everyone has paid a different price for their ticket. I sort of understand the logic behind this phenomenon, but am still a little confused. It would seem to me that if an airline has a 120 seat jet, leaving (as an example) Chicago for Los Angeles, next Wednesday, and they have 90 seats sold, that as the clock ticks down to departure time, the value of those seats would become less and less. The reason being, if the seat can't be sold, they still have to be transported. Wouldn't it make more sense to sell that ticket for a reduced price, than to leave it empty? Instead, it's the reverse. If you buy a ticket the day before, it's at a higher price than if you had bought it two weeks ago. Makes no sense. The plane is still going to go."
You can thank American for the magic of yield management. Instead of causing a seat to become less valuable as departure time nears, they have attempted to make it appear is if it is more valuable. It seems that this would only work well on routes that arent overloaded with capacity. But, this is the reason that you see such non-rational fare offerings. In all things, let the buyer beware.
