[Timboli]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Airlines sometimes sell flights for $1 or $5 as a promotion, that doesn't necessarily mean they are making huge profits on the normal price of the flight, but promotion like that can get them a lot of free advertising as long as they don't do it too often. The loss they make on the occasional promotion might be less that the cost of an equivalent advertising campaign with the tickets at full price.

Really? You lucky bugger, I have never seen any discount here approaching anything like those low prices.

It's not really free advertising. Planes cost money to fly. So they are taking a profit hit ... a loss no matter how you look at it, that they are obviously hoping to recoup to some degree.

Still, I will agree, that it is probably not as much of a loss as other forms of promotion.

It is normal practice in many industries to have different prices for the same product, e.g. travel where you might pay full price if you want to travel tomorrow, but get various discounts if you book in advance. The price is not based just on how much the travel costs, but more on what the travellers are prepared to pay.

I don't think you are quite right with that.
An airlines first consideration, is covering costs (including wages) and then attracting enough passengers to make a profit, so that it is all worthwhile. Here at least, they offer cheap seats at the last moment or for flights that won't be fully booked. Just to put bums on seats and cover costs. All weight in a plane though converts to greater fuel usage and thus cost, plus other factors.

This can actually work out to be a better deal for those without lots of money than if they charged one fixed price based on the cost of the travel, because the people who can afford to pay full price are to some extent subsidising the ones who pay the lowest price.

True, but not necessarily balanced or fair for all, but certainly great for some.

I personally couldn't afford to buy every ebook I read at full list price, but that is not a problem because I don't have to. I do buy many at full price, but I keep a big list of books I want to read and pick many of them up at discount prices to bring the average price down.

Definitely some merit in that, and I do similar too. Sometimes, an author does a great discount on one of their books, such that I will pay a little more for one of their other books, than I would normally do. I do that though, because they have kind of earned it.

I still wouldn't pay for an over-priced ebook by another author though, as they don't deserve it and I don't want to encourage bad behavior.

If I had more money I might not bother with that and just buy everything at full price. If I had less to spend I would put more time and effort into planning, bargain-hunting and buying in advance to manage my limited budget.

I used to do a lot of that last, but I have too much empathy for others and ethics to engage in the first bit.

I don't choose what to read based on price though, I think it is important to make the list of what to read without considering the price. But I do choose when to buy and so when to read based on price to some extent.

I never choose what to read based on price, only what I buy or when to buy. So much to read so little time.

I think a higher list price with discounts is actually fairer than having one single price based on cost of production.

I must admit, I don't get the rationale of that.