Airfare craziness...

I'd love to meet the people who come up with airfares. Of course, there may not actually be people who do this. A psychotic computer may have the job all to itself.

While recently traveling through Allentown's airport (ABE), I noticed a new banner by the escalators announcing the arrival of American Airlines at our airport. ABE is a surprisingly well-served airport that has almost all of the "major" legacy carriers (Delta/Northwest, United, USAirways, Continental) plus some smaller and newer discount airlines (Allegiant, Direct Air, AirTran) and one international carrier (Air Canada). The obvious legacy airline missing is American.

A quick search on the AA.com web site reveled three flights a day between Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and Allentown starting on June 10, 2010. Until now, United has had a lock on that route and it has been pricey. Thinking that competition may bring down the price of this route and allow Kate and me to visit her brother and sister-in-law in Chicago over the summer, I went in search of cheap airfares. No dice -- they are still high at around $400 even though nearly all of the seats are still available. Its seems that they want to fly empty planes for the first couple weeks.

But what if I want to fly through Chicago onto another airport relatively close to Chicago? On a whim I selected Milwaukee (MKE) to check fares. Actually, it was more than a whim since Kate and I would like to see the Kohler factory in Milwaukee some day, so maybe this would be a good opportunity. The fare for the same flights on American Airlines through Chicago and then connecting to Milwaukee is $239.

I'm trying to understand this... I can occupy an airplane seat for an additional 90 minutes during which time the airline will have to spend money on fuel and labor, and will contribute to CO2 emissions and ultimately global warming as they shuttle me from Chicago to Milwaukee, but I will save $160? Is there a secret organization subsidizing the flights to Milwaukee?