> Are you telling me you've surveyed every person on the plane to know for absolute sure nobody paid the same price?

I read it some years ago in an article about airline operations management and how they optimized their fares, which varied constantly through the day and the days of the week. Then there are all the various discounts people can get, frequent flyer prices, rebooking fees, etc. It's all based on heavy use of statistics, which is a more complex version of A/B testing.

> I never said airlines are stupid

You suggested they often make bad forecasts, implying they didn't know what they were doing.

But you may believe whatever you like.