Flying Blind
This amusing and detailed rundown on Delta's airfare plans reminded me that people have all kinds of different ideas of economic value and that price is just one component.
The notion of fairness, the idea that everyone should pay the same price, collides rather harshly with the desire for loyalty rewards, the idea that you get a special price. The airlines have all kinds of structural and management problems, and let's not even get into the regulatory issues, but the airlines have also cultivated a near psychotic consumer set.
Everyone on a given flight cannot have the best deal. Some people will have paid more for their ticket, some less. Some much, much less. Folks who obsess on this probably should not fly.