Two days ago (Dec. 13), American Airlines initiated a domestic airfare hike of $5 one-way for flights over 500 miles ($10 roundtrip) and a $3 one-way hike for shorter flights ($6 roundtrip); these hikes were added to the bulk of the carrier’s route system.

By the next day, both legacy network airlines and the low cost carriers matched the hike including Alaska, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, United, US Airways and Virgin America – virtually guaranteeing this to be one of the few successful hike attempts of the year.

Domestic airlines have struggled to raise base airfare prices this year, but numerous tries have crumbled due to lack of unanimous participation; and, regardless of the gradually improving economy, airlines continue to live by their recessionary domestic pricing motto of not being a dollar more or less than the competition.

This doesn’t mean that consumers haven’t been paying more for tickets this year.

Domestic airlines have resorted a handful of strategies to lift ticket prices this past year by specifically targeting high demand periods with peak travel surcharges of up to $30 one-way, and by selling fewer discounted seats (yielding up especially this summer) while keeping their planes completely full (maintaining capacity discipline).  These techniques, combined with the continued prominence of airline fees, have been the fuel for recent financial successes.

With oil prices hovering near 2010 highs of $90/barrel and recent positive statements from airline executives regarding winter demand, my prediction is that we will likely see more domestic hike attempts as we head into 2011.