Almost every person has bought a fly ticket online. It is an electronic market with customers all over the world and the prices in the market change all the time. It is almost impossible for a customer to guess the ticket price. Sometimes a customer is looking for a ticket, but the customer is not sure yet to buy the ticket. The next day the customer wants to buy the ticket and then the ticket shows the price is doubled. Why do these prices change all the time?
Airlines want their flights to be profitable. So every flight should sell as many tickets as possible and all costs should be covered in the tickets. A part of the price depends on the location, flight time and date.
Popular areas have higher prices than the non-popular places and day flights are more expensive than night flights. Furthermore some days are more expensive than other days. If you travel on Monday, Friday or Sunday, the prices will be higher due to business travelers and if you fly during holidays tickets will be higher as well.
Another part of the price depends on the moment of buying the tickets. Each flight has a maximum number of seats, but not every seat has the same price. Airlines are selling the same seats of a flight for different prices. The first twenty seats are the cheapest and when these tickets are sold, the next seats are more expensive. In this case the last available seats have the highest prices, but the seats are exact the same as the cheapest tickets.
Besides the seat availability, there are more factors that influence the moment of buying. The system counts the number of customers that is searching for the tickets. The more customers are looking for the tickets of the flight, the more chance there is the price will increase. The system will think the tickets are popular, so the prices will go up.
Furthermore airlines are using several sites to let the customer choose from different tickets. Some tickets have baggage included, while other tickets include nothing. At first the customer only sees different prices and when they click on a ticket they will be ask to add baggage. Few customers return and most of them go on buying the tickets. At the end most of the tickets are the same, but the airlines are selling more.
Any moment customers are buying tickets, so it is almost impossible to guess the ticket price. What we do know, is that there are several ways that influence the price. It depends on which day you want to fly, on what time you want to leave and on the moment you bought the ticket. Be sure you buy the ticket long before the flight, choose the right airports and don’t fly on popular times.
Sources:
https://flightfox.com/tradecraft/how-do-airlines-set-prices
https://www.cheapair.com/blog/travel-tips/air-fares-101-why-do-fares-change-all-the-time/
https://www.smartertravel.com/2015/09/01/how-do-airlines-set-prices-for-airfare/
Dear Ewoud, thank you for your blog! Your blog reminded me of an article I have read a while ago – about deleting browser cookies before you search for flights. Basically, it means that refreshing the page to search for flights will make the price go up, but if you clear your cookies before searching, the flight prices go down. While airlines of course deny this, I think there could be some truth in it, since cookies enable websites to track everything. For example, when I look for flight tickets to a specific destination, and I check Facebook afterwards, I suddenly have flight ticket or holiday advertisements for that destination.
The article I read also suggested pretending to be somewhere else when booking a flight, due to regional pricing. So for example, changing your residence to the airlines home country will affect the price you pay. I have not booked any tickets in a while, but I will be sure to check out these methods and see if they work 😉
http://www.businessinsider.com/travel-hacks-for-frequent-fliers-2015-6
Hi Ewoud,
Thanks for sharing this post! Will definitely keep these in mind next time I purchase flight tickets. Reading this reminded me of a concept I had heard of – ‘Hidden City Travel.’ This occurs when a consumer purchases a flight with a layover at your destination, as it is cheaper than purchasing a direct flight. For example, a passenger flying to Dallas would be able to save more money purchasing a ticket between Miami – Los Angeles with a stopover in Dallas (thus, missing the connecting flight), than a ticket between Miami – Dallas. This concept was turned into a company, Skiplagged, in order to help consumers save up to 80% (!) on flight tickets. Although United Airlines and Orbitz tried to sue Skiplagged for unfair competition, they failed in doing so and thus, consumers are still able to use this service for cheaper flights!
– http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3081420/Buy-ticket-eight-weeks-advance-fly-different-carriers-book-risky-hidden-city-fare-outsmart-airlines-cheapest-flights.html
– https://skiplagged.com/
– http://www.businessinsider.com/young-founder-wins-united-orbitz-suit-2015-5