How To Teach Airline Fare Pricing Programs To Understand September 11th

from the even-computers-are-shocked dept

How airlines price seats is a very complicated science that almost no one understands. It certainly pisses off many customers who don't understand how or why the prices changes so rapidly and so drastically, but it's how the airlines make their money. However, following September 11, many airline had to stop using their pricing software programs, because it's tough to explain to those programs that people don't want to fly because they're afraid of a terrorist attack, and not because the prices are too high. Of course, it seems that most airlines did eventually lower their prices anyway, to entice people back into the "friendly" skies, and to some extent it is working.