it's certainly a race to the bottom. Why would any airline bother selling $799 tickets to NYC return ?
Wouldn't it be better to leave seats empty ? Some poor travel agent has to try telling some punter, that $799 was a one off special & fares normally start at double or triple that.
Benchmarking is dangerous & it's then hard to get people to believe that the $3000 fare to NYC was NOT a ripoff.