Posted on 07/24/2015 8:08:10 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Friday said the government is investigating whether four airlines engaged in price gouging after a deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May disrupted rail service in the Northeast.
The Transportation Department sent letters on Friday to Delta, American, Southwest and JetBlue requesting information.
Prices on round-trip airline tickets between major cities such as New York City and Washington, D.C., skyrocketed in the wake of the deadly Amtrak derailment, which closed a major stretch of rail line and disrupted travel in one of....
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
For those who don't know: a basic law of economics is that when their is HIGH demand for a service and a LOW supply of that service, prices will rise.
The service of transportation was trimmed back when the engineer chose to speed around the tracks and crash the train. Ergo, the airlines saw an INCREASED demand for their services.
Pretty simple explanation.
Actually, they have computer programs that raise the prices automatically when there’s more demand for a route.
Speaking of the Amtrak crash, anyone heard an update on the investigation? I had the impression initially that the engineer hit the gas instead of the brakes going into the turn, but I haven’t seen any update on the story in quite some time.
The ENTIRE Air Line “Industry” has been out of control for a long time. They NEVER should have been “De-Regulated”!
I think they did, so why isn’t the Department of Transportation on top of it? Oh yeah....I forgot....they are getting to much money paid to them UNDER the table to keep their mouth shut....that should work...
I think that fits with my explanation above. :)
The term “gouging” reflects a statist policy preference. Standing in a queue is a common activity in a welfare state, perhaps one of the leading uses of time.
Statists think it’s virtuous for plebes to stand in line to wait for their rations.
They would rather everyone have to stand in line or experience shortages, than the 1%, or plebes with a consumption preference, to get access to services or good because of their willingness and ability to pay.
that’s what I thought, that computer programming, not decisions by actual human beings, caused prices to rise.
Question — Is there any case against airlines for price gouging if human beings didn’t make decisions to do this? Can the Justice Department sue the software?? Not to be too flippant, but there is variable pricing nowadays on so many products, and computer software will make the call as to where prices should be to maximize revenue. Will management which approves of this software find themselves sued? Will such software be outlawed somehow?
I think the problem is that government policies and regulations discourage the industry from growing. Instead, like health insurance, companies are buying companies and the pool of competitors is shrinking.
If the government’s regulatory apparatus were dismantled and there was an environment that encouraged small startup airlines to be created, things would be better for the consumer.
By giving Amtrak a monopoly on passenger train travel, isn’t the government itself guilty of price fixing.
Beating up EEEEEEVIL Corporations in the name of The Little Guy is going to be a cornerstone of the 2016 Dem campaign.
You can’t mean that.
Why should the FAA set the number of carriers that can fly into or out of a particular airport, versus leaving this issue to the market?
In inflation adjusted terms, prices are much lower than they were prior to deregulation, perhaps a 75-80% discount from their pre-deregulation prices.
Oh boy. i suppose I should look out for a federal probe. I price gouge all the time. When one of my customers comes in and needs a part made over night or next day I charge double my hourly rate.
It is extremely expensive to comply with the regulations of Title 49 CFR Part 238, but there IS one private concern that leapt through all the hoops of the FRA back in 2011 to show that private enterprise CAN do this, and compete directly with Amtrak (being able to bid one state contracts to run certain routes that Amtrak can't do effectively), and maybe, just maybe even make money.
The thing is the cost of compliance is so absolutely ridiculously high, that it almost is not worth it... everything degrades into some sort of Crony Capitalism... everyone puts their hand out looking to get taxpayer funding in some form because the money is "free".
That was my question when I saw the thread headline. Looks like it's been buried. The engineer's a homo isn't he?
They’ve gotta get with the Uber language on this—they had “surge” pricing.
“Speaking of the Amtrak crash, anyone heard an update on the investigation?”
The Gay Engineer, is a member of a Democrat-protected class, so this has already been dropped into the fires of the memory hole.
Actually, FEDGOV has made it so costly and burdensome to start any airline operation, especially to smaller cities, that it has created the current environment.
Go back to pre Clinton mid-90’s “Airline Reform” rules, and watch aviation “take off” again.
As it stands now, it is unprofitable to even think about flying anything with less than 150 seats, nearly full every trip.
I don’t know. I think the whole airline pricing strategy should be revised, personally.
Do you pay a different price to ride the bus at a certain time of day? Take the subway? And on top of that, not know what the price will be?
In my opinion, they should simply offer prices. Some will be higher (for quality - for example, I’d pay more for a Delta flight because they’ve always treated me better than the other lines) but the price should simply be what it is.
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