Airline passengers today stand in numerous lines, are crowded into small seats on mostly full airplanes, and often spend time on taxiways because of air-traffic problems or lack of open gates. But what gripes travelers almost as much as these annoyances is finding out that the person sitting next to them paid a much lower fare than they did for their seat.
This concept of "yield management," also known as "revenue management," results in ticket pricing that can range from free to thousands of dollars on the same plane. Consumers also experience this practice when booking hotel rooms, even up to the time of check-in.
Make the case first for, and then against, this type of pricing system. To which of the two arguments do you subscribe, and why?