In message , at 12:36:15 on Sat, 21
Dec 2013, tim..... remarked:

It's entirely possible that some seats on the feeder flights

They weren't the seats that I was referring to.

But it seems a lot of faf.

Just how many flights into LHR from points in Europe do BA have to keep
seats free on in case someone wants to connect to LA? 200, 300 400.
That's a lot of held sets for one potential connecting pax.

It's whatever their yield management tells them. Approaching the travel
date it could be as few as one or two seats on a plane that's already
"full" for shorthaul passengers. Very close to the travel date they
might open any remaining shorthaul seats up to walk-up passengers
prepared to pay a king's ransom to travel *now*.

are reserved for passengers who go on to occupy a vastly more
lucrative seat on a long-haul.

selling a seat on a Long haul flight off at a rock bottom price to a
connect pax is not my idea of lucrative

The price they sell the otherwise empty longhaul seat for isn't rock
bottom, it's just low enough that the shorthaul connecting flight
appears to be "priced negative".

eg if the direct fare is say £1400, then an indirect fare might be
£1200, which includes a £300 discount on the long haul [down to £1100]
plus £100 for the feeder flight. But to the passenger it feels like the
feeder flight is minus £200.

As far as the indirect airline is concerned it just got £1200 in revenue
from that passenger, which would otherwise have been £1400 to the
competitor with the direct flight.
--
Roland Perry