[DarkWiiPlayer]

Your analogy doesn't hold water. This is your garage, and you'd lose the rights to it by not using it.

A better one would be:

You have a reserved parking spot near a nice beach; but you will have to visit this beach at least 20 times during the summer or you will lose your reservation.

Does this make sense? Depends on your goal. If you want fair access to the beach for as many people as possible, no. If you want a smaller number of regulars that will spend many days at the beach and might be more willing to maybe buy some ice cream at your chiringuito, yes.

The actual problem also translates well to this analogy: You might drive all the way to the beach only to park for 10 minutes and drive back, only to keep your privilege for those days where you really want to use it.

[kjaftaedi]

Your analogy is slightly better, but even then it still misses the whole idea of hubs and connecting flights, because it's not just your trip to the beach, it's a whole network of cars trips to the beach that also depend on your trip to the beach in order for the system to function.

Once you start removing trips and other people take your parking spot, you don't always get your parking spot back or even one close, sometimes you might have to find all your cars a new beach to use.

[quantified]

You may find reasons to favor yourself, of course. But if you’re just diddling around not making use of your slots, and someone else can be, the greater good is served by opening up the spot for someone else.