Originally Posted by
YorkshireTyke
This is totally evil, but happens all the time. I once arrived earlier than previously planned at an intermediate stop where a change of carrier was involved. I asked if there was a seat available on the earlier flight than the one I was booked on, and about to depart ? Yes, Oh ! good, I have my later flight boarding pass, no luggage, can I go now ? Yes, welcome, pay me $50. Why ? Administrative fee. What ? I agree that if I had contacted you before arrival you might have had some massive amount of admin. to complete, but here I am, there is the gate about to close, I have no luggage, you don't provide catering ( a local puddle-jumper ) and you say that there is a seat available that is "free" seating, no seat numbers have to be issued, I just walk on. No. OK, if I fill one of your empty seats now, you may be able to re-sell my previous one for the afternoon flight. No, only if you pay us $50. Get stuffed, and I sat in front of the desk for the rest of the time reading my book and occasionally laughing at them. But of course they didn't care.
Look at it from a process perspective: Ypu've got low-salaried staff - possibly from a sub-contractor - performing a single task: checking in passengers for their booked flight with a number of simple criteria. On time? Luggage within limits? Docs OK? Here's your boarding pass, here are your baggage tags. Go to the gate.
Add complexity by asking them to do something that a) they can't do at check-in (they're unlikely to have access to Inventory) and for which they're not trained and it's no surprise that there's a case for introducing a disincentive. Yes, the carrier could
possibly re-sell the seat on the later flight (or an ID passenger gets to fly), but they're marginal revenues at best and pale in comparison with the impact of a clogged ticket desk tasked with managing complexer issues