When you think about it though, it's a simple market arbitrage opportunity. If someone was selling £600 shares of stock at £120, with some odd restrictions, they'd be jumping on it. They're lucky someone didn't buy every vacuum cleaner available, mail-merged, printed and mailed letters and re-sold the tickets to customers at a markup. I'd pay £150 for a £600 flight ticket, if it meant I didn't have to figure out what to do with a vacuum cleaner. Why wouldn't a bunch of MBA-types see that?