Is it just US Airways or the airline industry ?

So I had to fly from Detroit to Philadelphia this past Wednesday and something strange (at least for me) happened. Before I actually describe what, a bit of a background might add more weight to the story :)

I knew about this trip around a month in advance so I tried to book my tickets early. Here were my options - 

1. Take a direct flight which goes out at 8:30 pm and arrives at 10:20pm for $250 or 
2. Pony up an extra $40 to fly out at 6:00pm and arrive at 7:54pm. 

Since this was the first time I was flying to Phily, I thought it might be better to get in at a decent hour, not the least because I also had a meeting at 8:00 am the next morning. 40 bucks seemed like a decent price to pay for this convenience and so I took it.

However, as it turned out I wasn't all that smart as I had thought I was :). As I get to the departure gate, I see that dreaded word "cancelled", and I'm thinking damn, now I'll get in at 10:30 instead of 8. I wish ! I went up to the US Airways agent and asked him what was going on ? He said the flight has been cancelled and I went, ya - I can read that, but can you tell me why ? "Maintainence issues" he says. How convenient ! There is no way I can dispute that. So I request him to put me on the 8:30 flight. "That flight is completely booked sir". WTH ? He does have another option for me though. He can get me into Phily via Charlotte the same day [if midnight qualifies as that]. Yes, lets do it (as if I had an option). I should probably add that during this entire conversation, there wasn't a hint of apology in his tone. To the contrary, he sounded like he was doing me a favor !


Anyway, being the skeptic I am, especially when money is involved, I thought - was this really due to maintainence or could there be something else behind it. I couldn't think what ! As I entered my plane to Charlotte, the answer came flying. The flight, even after accommodating all other passengers from the cancelled flight was 20% empty. It was obvious (to me atleast), US Airways had cancelled the flight to Phily to save the expenses of flying an extra plane. And I wouldn't really mind that too much if the alternative was more convenient or atleast if they had the balls to own up to their 'scheme'. 

So I came back from my trip and did a quick google search on "cancel empty planes" and was happy to find that I wasn't being overly paranoid. There are other people who have gone through this and oh just by chance, US Airways seems to come up a lot in the results. 

BTW, I got into my hotel room at 1am which was slightly different than what I had in mind when I bought my tickets :)


And just for context, this picture shows how efficient it is to fly people from detroit to phily via charlotte :)