I needed to fly out of AVL (ashville) in the evening on Wed the 5th and fly to PBI (Palm Beach).

A fellow Pelican was nice enough to give me a ride to the Asheville Airport and my brother was picking me up in Palm Beach. Flight 4093 from AVL and 285 out of Atlanta.

I needed to fly a certain day at a certain time from a certain airport.

I decided not to go. I will miss a mini Pelican meet at Dragons tail now but there is always this summer.

If I can figure out a way to trailer her up I will.

Yup, it sure is.

My wife went to Russia on Aeroflot. Boy, was she glad to get off of a state run airliner!

I got stuck in FL during the NE blizzard a while back.

Cost the entire family me, wife 5 yr old and 2 yr old $650 RT on Jetblue.

So we are in FL, see the weather forecast and figure we should get out later as we probably won't be able to land in NY.

Call jetblue, they say no problem, we'll waive the $75 change fee and your new rate is $750. $750? One way?

I say "mam, why would I pay $100 more to go one way than the entire original roundtrip price when I can wait until tomorrow when YOU cancel the flight and I get a new flight for NOTHING!

Call back a few hours later and sure enough, they are cancelling flights left and right and I got a new flight.

Stupid.

My wife went to Russia on Aeroflot. Boy, was she glad to get off of a state run airliner!

Yep, they just banned over 55 airline operators from flying to the EU nations because they said the planes were basically flying deathtaps..!

I just booked a flight from AVL to MCO (Orlando) with US Airways. $265, 3 days before the flight.

I think its sad, I would have flown Delta if they just kept the price the same. West Palm is 1 hour away and Orlando is 1.5 hours away from my house.

My last plane ride was from BWI to San Diego with a quick stop in Charlotte - $200 one way in January 06. On the way back I flew from El Paso to BWI with a quick stop in Austin - $90. You just have to shop around a lot. Last year I flew from Newark to Hong Kong non-stop for $860 round trip. When I was really poor and tried stand-by, I got stuck in Frankfurt, Germany for about 40 hours before I just gave up and credit-carded a one way ticket to Dulles - $275.

Airlines and hotels use fairly sophisticated software to determine the optimum price based on demand volume and market response models.

They could change it hourly if they wanted to...

How do I know? I used to sell it.. :)

I have a good idea. If gubmint interference is bad, let's do away with the FAA and let those fabulous "market forces" protect air travellers. The risk of bad press and lawsuits will cause the airlines to fall all over each other upgrading planes and safety. Right? Nope. they'll save money until somebody's play goes down in flames.

Just like they're all racing for the bankruptcy courts.......where judges just ask creditors to back off while the company "restructures."

Market forces? Bull****! This industry behaves acceptably to the degree it is STILL REGULATED. Its poorest behavior is in those areas that are DEREGULATED, and it will continue to do this until either

1) Bankruptcy judges let them die the deaths they deserve, or
2) Regulation returns

To be clear. I am not looking for a free flight. I will not be insulted by the price doubling as it approaches. If you can do it for 360 2 weeks out you can do it for 360 the day before.

If the price was 500 3 weeks out and I decided to do it and it was the same 2 days out I would not have a problem. My problem is the idea that they can charge more because if you are booking 2 days out you MUST need the ticket more and will pay more. That is their gamble and they lost this time.

If an airline would step up and just keep it the same all the way up to the fight they would kill the other carriers in my opinion.