The airlines MUST discriminate -- i. e. must screw business flyers. That's the
only reason for "A Saturday Night Stay is required." If the airlines couldn't
enforce that profits would drop sharply, followed by a shrinkage of capacity, and
then a cut-back of the discounted tickets.
The hub-and-spoke preceded deregulation and doesn't add to capacity but does
add to trip times. The Brookings study touting billions of dollars of savings
from deregulation was a cocked up story with the results built into the
assumptions -- two of which were that business flyers loved the more frequent
departures, hence very valuable, and that business flyers hardly minded at all the
longer travel times. Nonsense, but it got them the result they wanted.
And if you love the fact that vacationers benefit from price discrimination on
the airlines, hold onto your wallet when PG&E sends the bill, because the small
users will be the victims of similar discrimination.
Brad De Long wrote:
> >
> >> Louis Proyect wrote:
> >>
> >> >One of the most forceful advocates is Ted Kennedy, who
> >> >believed that Joe Six-Pack was getting cheated out of affordable air
> >> >travel. I guess neglect and stupidity about air travel runs in the Kennedy
> > > >family.
> >>
>
> But Joe Sixpack *was* getting cheated out of affordable air travel.
> Our current pricing configuration--low prices for vacationers who
> plan in advance and stay over Saturday night, high prices for
> business travelers who complete round trips within the week--and our
> current hub-and-spoke system (which provides greater capacity at the
> price of more hassle) are products of deregulation.
>
> Don't any of you fly anywhere on vacation?
>
> Brad DeLong
