This article is an edited version of a recent exchange that occurred on our economic chatboard. Airfare prices have always boggled me. Here we have the same last-minute travelers paying both the highest and lowest fares for the same flight, depending on whether they buy on line or in the ticket line. This situation makes me wonder why we enforce laws against scalping tickets and other black market operations. Where and how you buy your ticket tells the airline a lot about the price you are willing or able to pay.
Price discrimination is especially good for the seller, but also can benefit society as a whole.
Price discrimination most certainly does occur in regulated markets. And it's probably a good bet that price discrimination designed by politicians or regulators will yield screwier results than price discrimination that emerges from markets. Like you, economists wonder why we enforce laws against scalping tickets, since these laws often hurt performers, theater owners, and spectators and primarily help scalpers. A seller needs some monopoly power to prevent people like me from intervening in this way. The person in line and the person online are likely to be very different people.