I knew that Airline pricing was pretty crazy, but I didn’t realize it was this crazy:
Passengers flying to or from airports that are dominated by a single carrier — like Memphis, Newark or Dallas/Fort Worth — pay fares 20 or 30 percent higher than at non-hub airports. The prices are even more inflated when you’re flying from a smaller city with a limited number of flights. A nonstop one-way ticket from Des Moines to Dallas/Fort Worth is $375 onAmerican Airlines, for example — more than the $335 Delta will charge you to fly from Miami to Anchorage.
But what happens when you’re interested in flying American from Des Moines to Los Angeles, which hosts a more competitive airport? That flight is only about half the price ($186), despite its being more than double the distance. Now, here’s the trick: American flights from Des Moines to L.A. have a layover in Dallas. If you want to travel to Dallas, the best way to get a reasonable fare is to book the flight to Los Angeles instead, and simply get off the plane at Dallas.
There is an article on NY Times with a great graphic showing route comparisons. I wonder if this becomes enough of a thing, how the airlines will react.
It's always more complicated 
How’s this for crazy airline pricing? Continental Airlines is paying my wife and me to fly across the continent. A few weeks ago, I was trying to arrange flights from New York to San Francisco, then the next week to Seattle, then the next week back to New York. By mistake, I forgot to put in the last leg of the trip, but I caught my mistake before committing. After correcting the mistake — adding in the Seattle to New York leg — the total cost was about $30 less per ticket than before. So Continental is effectively paying us $30 each to fly from Seattle to New York.
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