Common for airline flight prices fluctuate so drastically?

L[Deactivated] on 10/08/2013 - 02:15

I did a quick search on Thursday night for a Melb > LAX > JFK and then LAX > Melb set of flights for early next year. They were $1410 all up, a fairly reasonable price I felt, so thought I'd book them on Friday night once I was home as I was at work at the time. I go to book them tonight and they've shot up to $1915. Stunned, I checked other airlines (the flights I wanted to book were with QANTAS) and all other competing airlines - Virgin Australia, United Airlines etc - had all had several hundred dollar price rises overnight also.

Is this common practice? For all airlines to jump so hugely for a flight that's 7 months away has me very surprised. If the flight were in a matter of weeks I'd kind of understand why as it'd be getting closer to capacity. But for all airlines to jump so much overnight.. If it is common practice, is it like buying petrol i.e. flights can be cheaper on a certain day of the week, or a certain week of the month? I'm definitely not wanting to shell out close to 2k for flights!!

Many thanks.

Travel

Comments

  • Elision on 10/08/2013 - 02:19
    +2

    It may just be that the prices have shot up, but it would also be worth it for you to search again using private search or incognito mode (whatever your browser has). There is speculation that flight websites are tracking peoples cookies, when they know you are interested in flights the prices shoot up.

    elliott.org/the-navigator/no-airline-cookie-conspiracy-what-about-this-trail-of-crumbs/

    I don't know if it's true but worth a look at.

    • [Deactivated] on 10/08/2013 - 03:26

      Hmm that's interesting. I'll give the private browsing mode a crack, and try searching for flights tomorrow at my mother's place (different ip obviously) without signing into my frequent flyer account.. It'll likely be the same price but it's worth a shot!! cheers.

  • RockyRaccoon on 10/08/2013 - 07:18

    Considering you said you did this at work, then rechecked at home, unless you were using the same computer how would cookies affect the result?

    • issh on 10/08/2013 - 11:27

      Possible using google chrome and signing in
      However, I"m not sure if this will affect the results

    • [Deactivated] on 10/08/2013 - 13:24

      I did it on my phone both times and logged in with my frequent flyer account.
      It still appears to be the same high price though, I'll just wait for next week see if they dip back down again.
      Thanks all for your replies.

  • nissa on 10/08/2013 - 09:25
    +4

    Found the same thing last year. Panicked when I saw the new price but a few days later it went back down again and I bought.
    I only looked at United as that was the one that suited us and I found it just kept going up and down for the next 6 months.Weekends was always the worst priced time.
    Booked with Kayak who send you to the airlines site for booking and used Yapta to keep an eye on it.

  • Peck on 10/08/2013 - 10:44
    +1

    it IS common for airline flight prices (both up and down) and availability (yes/no) fluctuate drastically on Emirates web site. Maybe Qantas have adopted some of their habits.

  • donga100 on 10/08/2013 - 14:13

    Qantas have announced they will increase fuel surcharges on flights booked from 14th August so they may have decreased fare availability between now and then?

  • KBZ on 17/09/2013 - 15:35
    +2

    I know this topic is a bit old but sorta might bump it up.

    I think Airlines do track your cookies and do bump flight prices up or even remove them entirely on sites to make you call up and get booking fees charged.

    This is my recent experience (For Qantas) so I want to book a couple of tickets Syd-BKK in Jan yesterday I notice there is seats available and on sale. I decide yeh I'll move some funds around and book tomorrow (which is today).

    I check today seats no available for ENTIRE weekend returning flights, I can't believe they would sell out that fast, I decide to check with SkyScanner to see if they indeed sold out and SS spits out the same flights that I checked all available and at the prices I saw yesterday, I decide to clear cookies and refresh and what do you know flights pop back up for the ENTIRE weekend and including the SALE tickets.

    Lesson learnt:
    - Do not login
    - Clear cookies
    - Double check with SkyScanner

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