They are not jacking up the price because people are desperate, they are determining a price that, if met, will compensate them for being able to offer a service that no one else can offer.
It will encourage other suppliers to do the same.
“They are not hacking up the price because people are desperate”
Oh, let them have their little word. “Desperation” equals higher demand. So the more desperate customers are the higher prices go, and the best way to allocate scarce resources in times of desperation is freely floating prices, like always.
You could call the a mother’s love for her children dependency and the children’s receiving her care exploitation on their part, or a $150 million contract to play baseball wage slavery. A ything can be whatever you say it is so long as people assent to it. But that doesn’t touch the morality of the situation. If children exploit their parents or being a millionaire is being a slave then exploitation and slavery are good. If charging higher prices for plane tickets during disasters is profiteering off people’s desperation, then making money off desperation is a good thing.
I actually believe that last part. Thank God people can make money off desperation. It’s so much better that they can than that they bake money off lesser need.