What determines the frequent price changes (sometimes hourly) for flights?

[BC]

I have been checking a flight for US Air for about a month now and the price changes daily, sometimes several times a day. Just wondered what drives the price change, sometimes by the hour? Also, is there a time or day that you have found to be better for rates than others?

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

There are thousands and thousands of fare changes daily. Ultimately it is supply and demand plus matching what competitors are doing. Airlines have sophisticated computer programs that track everything; this is the science of Yield Management. The goal is always to maximize the fare that they can sell tickets for, keeping in mind the supply of seats, the demand for those seats and tracking what the competition is up to.

BobK/Orlando

 

[portsofcall]

I have been checking a flight for US Air for about a month now and the price changes daily, sometimes several times a day. Just wondered what drives the price change, sometimes by the hour? Also, is there a time or day that you have found to be better for rates than others?

About 2 weeks ago, I booked a one way from LAX to MCO for end of September for $99 each. I waited for the return purchase, because we weren't sure about how long we could be away from work. I just checked again today and the price doubled on Delta and almost every other airline into into LAX.

I went to a popular travel website and took a chance on purchasing a secret flight and it worked out well (not the site with William Shatner). They actually give you some clues such as flight duration and departure and arrival window. I opened another window and searched for flights fitting the same criteria. We purchased the unknown flight. We received the confirmation instantly. Then, I went to the airline website and they were charging double for the same flight, but I saw our reservations were fully paid for. The only drawback was that Air Tran charges for seat assignments. FREE at check-in. We decided to pay for the longer segment from Atlanta to LAX. Before I submitted the payment, I opened another window and found a coupon code for flights to/from Florida. I had to sign up and I receive the email. Even though I didn't pay directly through AirTran, they took the $25 voucher to pay for seats for both flight segments saving our extra $$$ for the onflight internet service

Here's the link for the voucher: http://www.airtran.com/sunshine/

 

[blizzards39]

I booked flights a couple of nights ago. I picked flights, spent 30 minutes entering all of my info for 8 passengers and when I went to pay for the tickets, it informed me that the price was no longer valid. I had to start over and the tickets were over $100 more each. Needless to say I changed airlines.

 

[frannn]

The price would go down for some flights when another major airline was having a sale. It would sometimes be one price during the day, and then drop late at night, or late afternoon. My flight, which was for a slow travel period & had no seats taken, started out about 300/person. My price is now about 142/person, and there's still a month before our trip. I saved over 500 by watching the prices, booking with an airline that issues credits if your flight goes down, and by not booking when I saw prices jump up for the weekend (which they often do).

 

[BC]

Unfortunately, I guess that's one of my problems. We are leaving out on a Saturday. Also, we only have US Air & Delta that flys out of our city. Not much options for me. I'll keep watching & hopefully I will get lucky!

 

[GrumpyBa*D]

I have a similiar story. I booked flights through O.. since they have price assurance for PHL-MCO the price was 199 with fees. I had been watching if for a while missed the 180 then to 239 to 219 and back to 239. Wed about 730pm I got a yapta alert that the price was back down to 199 so i booked it. the next morning at 730 when I turned on my blackberry I had another alert from 1am that the same flights were down to the original 179.... it was quite a pain but O cancelled my flights without charge and I booked through the airline. so within 5 hours of the same day it dropped from 240-180...