I thought everybody booked aisle and window and left the middle unbooked. If you get lucky, you have an extra seat; if not, the middle seat will almost always be willing to swap for one of the other two and you can still sit together.

Nope. If an empty row is available, book the middle seat. No one wants to sit next to the weirdo who chooses the middle seat first.

But then if the plane is full you are stuck in a middle seat whereas, like gp pointed out, choosing window + aisle for a two-person booking almost always lets you fallback to window + middle or middle + aisle if the middle seat does get filled so there is really no risk in taking the chance.

The business traveler who is less price sensitive and almost always books a solo itinerary.

> less price sensitive

As a business traveler I actually want the price to be as high as possible while satisfying the company rules on airfare. The fare is fully reimbursed, so a higher fare means I get more points on my credit card.

Now the company rules on airfare will probably reference something like the least-cost logical fare. So it is in a business traveler's interest for all airlines to raise prices simultaneously.

Business travel is weird.

It's a shame this is so far down the page (at least for me, at this moment) because I'm fairly certain you are exactly right.

HN comments vote need more than 40 minutes to stabilize

It's also literally in the article itself:

"It's just another way for airlines to continue 'segmenting' their customers, charging business travelers paying with a corporate card more while offering a better deal to families on the exact same flight."

All my solo flights over the last year were wedding related. That is probably a huge cash cow for the airline and hotel industry. The hotel is basically never full even with the hotel block so it is probably a very welcome cash infusion for them at an otherwise sleepy locale.