Airlines’ Fare System Cutting Into Business

We all have joked over the years -- anytime we board a plane from a major airline going from the West Coast to the East Coast -- that there may be folks who paid $200 and those who paid $1,500, depending upon when they bought their ticket (“Low Rates the Final Destination?” April 12).

The ticket-purchasing system created by the airline industry obviously was designed to target the traveler who must make a reservation within a short time before traveling.

By creating this obnoxious ticket pricing system, the airlines destroyed their spontaneous leisure-travel business.

We don’t purchase any commodity with the convoluted pricing characteristics of airline tickets, where round-trip air fares are cheaper than one-way and empty seats on the day of travel may be four times the price of a seat purchased a month in advance.

Ted Kuepper

Oxnard