Airfare Increased In Just 30 Minutes!

[grinningghost]

Aaaagggghhhh! I found a pretty good airfare on US Airways and bookmarked it. Checked with DH - he said, go ahead and book it.

Went back and the airfare went from $217 pp to $242 in less than 30 minutes!

So round and round I went again and finally found the cheapest on Delta for $226 pp.

I guess fuel prices really are affecting the airlines - at least the ones I found - all went up that quick!

So I bought the Delta tickets - I'm not procrastinating anymore with the way things are going.

 

[CarolMN]

I don't think the U S Air increase you experienced had anything to do with fuel prices. Until you actually purchase a ticket, the price is not guaranteed. I think that particular fare just sold out before you could actually purchase it. Low fares are limited in number - someone else just beat you to that one, so U S Air showed you the next least expensive class.

Glad you were able to find something else that will work for you.

Best wishes-

 

[macraven]

whenever someone buys a ticket on line, the price automatically goes up.

it will decrease in price later after a specific time period.

united, american, ata, spirit do it that way all the time.

if you see a low fare and go back an hour later and it has raised, don' t panic.

wait a few hours and you will see the price has dropped again.

so much time has to elapse once a ticket is sold before the price drops back to the low fare again.

 

[grinningghost]

Oh well, I guess I lived and learned, but either way, I have my tickets now, so I'm relaxing a little.

 

[Piecey]

whenever someone buys a ticket on line, the price automatically goes up.

it will decrease in price later after a specific time period.

united, american, ata, spirit do it that way all the time.

if you see a low fare and go back an hour later and it has raised, don' t panic.

wait a few hours and you will see the price has dropped again.

so much time has to elapse once a ticket is sold before the price drops back to the low fare again.

I don't want to offend anyone here and I know I could be wrong- but what on earth gave you that impression? Airlines don't release tickets that way- or if they do, I was trained wrong and I'm a travel agent!

Airlines release a certain amount of tickets in certain fare classes. If you've ever paid attention before you may notice that you have a fare basis code when you book a ticket and the first letter of that code is your fare class. Airlines only release certain amounts of tickets in each fare class (normally three fare codes for first class, two fare codes for business and somewhere around nine for coach/economy) Each code has a different set of fare rules... the cheapest being the most restrictive. Well, as soon as the amount of seats they've assigned in that fare class are gone, they move up to the next one. Or, maybe, the seats aren't sold but the fare rules had a restriction that ran up- those seats are then bumped up to another more expensive class. Airlines always have the ability to change those prices in order to sell their seats- I've seen it happen in a matter of minutes when I was booking a flight for someone.

 

[macraven]

since march, i have booked with three different airlines for three different trips and noticed the changes on the online sites.

i called the airlines and what i posted was what they told me.
i was told to wait and recheck the online site at a later point.

sometimes it is cheaper to book online than thru the phone.
spirit last month gave a $10 discount by booking online