OK, this is just weird (from Alaska Airlines)

I was checking into my flight and they gave me the option to choose a seat. I have some sort of supersaver ticket (I’m not actually paying—it’s for my flight to this talk on what to do when your estimate is 1 standard error away from 0—but I still have some habit of frugality so I’m billing the university for the lowest fare I could find), so I thought I’d see what was available. And here’s what I saw:

So . . . they’re willing to charge me $83 for a middle seat that doesn’t recline?? I don’t get that strategy. Maybe the next item is $82 for a middle seat that doesn’t recline and is covered with a sticky mess, or $81 for a middle seat that doesn’t recline where the tray table doesn’t work?

All this is in comparison to $0 for the default seat, which can’t be worse than that.

I guess their algorithm is out of control. Maybe Alaska Airlines laid off whoever was in charge of their pricing and delegated it to a computer program?