Delta Fares

Why does the price of airfare seem to change every few seconds?

I'm trying to book plane tickets for my fiance and I to go from London to San Antonio, Texas (where I'm from) for a couple weeks around Easter. I've been online for several hours this morning scouring airline websites (BA, Delta, Northwest, Continental, AA, etc.) and 'cheap ticket' providers (Kayak, Travelocity, etc.). Especially on Delta the fares seem to change every few seconds! I'll find a good one, then when I select it the website tells me that they've sold out of those. Then the price goes up and down and up and down again. WHY? And does anyone have any good tips on getting a great fare?

Public Comments

1. Supply and demand.
2. AS Long as your plane goes up and down,just pay the bill and have a bl++dy good time.
3. the price changes because flight patterns and the number of passengers change (planes are held up due to weather, more people buy more tix or cancel flights, etc.)not to mention that a plane is a machine that just may not be working at that time. Hint: For a good fare do one of two things either catch the last two seats for the cheapest rate b/c they are just tryiing to fill the plane, which is a gamble or buy your tix in advance. At least two weeks in advance!
4. Fuel prices...
5. airlines do not deal with money made today for taday. they deal with before money weeks before they want your money it will be cheap weeks before as it gets closer it will go up. I hope this helped you.
6. Airlines fares change as they have different rules on different types of tickets and a limit on how many they sell of each one. the cheapest tickets are the most restrictive ie you cant change them in any way once they are booked. Your best bet is to go to an agent that speacialises in flights as they use companies that buy seats on flights and sell them cheaper, so if Delta say that they have sold out then maybe an agent still have some seats left in the allocation they got from the airline. good luck.
7. Airfares are determined based on a number of different factors: 1.What is the current price for fuel? When the price of oil goes up, obviously the price for jet fuel goes up, too, and the planes use a LOT of fuel! 2.How many seats have been booked so far? The more seats open, the lower the price will be as a sold seat is better than an empty seat! 3.Airlines sell seats in different categories – each at a different rate. The lowest usually sells out first and then the next level is a bit higher. So when you’re on a particular airline’s Web site and they have a lower price available one minute and the next minute it is gone, it very well could have just been sold to someone else and the next category is then available. The airlines are not actively sitting there raising and lowering the prices all day long, they value the seats at specific prices way ahead of time based on the market and the other factors. For example, if a plane has 200 seats on it and 12 of those are First Class, that means that there are 188 coach seats. Out of those 188 maybe 20 will be at a specific fare (usually labeled with a letter, such as “Y” or “Q”), and for this example we will say it is $150. Another 20 seats will be sold at $190, another 20 at $200, another 20 at $240 and another at $270. This would leave 108 seats left to be sold and the airline can chose to sell those at the “full fare” price, which for this example may be $600. The reason there is such a difference is because of the restrictions placed on the lower fares, such as no refunds, no changes, etc. The full fare tickets are usually either fully refundable or at least changeable. The reason the airlines do not offer those benefits for all flights is because if those paying a lower fare would have the opportunity to cancel their tickets for a full refund, the flight may be much emptier than expected and the amount of money needed to support the flight would not be there, causing the airline to lose money and ultimately either have to raise the prices even more or go out of business. The full fare tickets are normally purchased by business travelers who may have to change plans at the last minute and therefore have that privilege without a risk. So if you think about it, out of 188 seats available only 20 of them are at the lowest fare ($150 in the above example), those seats can sell very quickly when you think of everyone in the world having access to the Web site and/or travel agents, etc. 4.Airfares may also be dependent on the market to which they are flying. Some airports have much higher landing fees that they charge the airline and therefore the airline must raise the price of the tickets accordingly. If the flight is going into a market that has a lot of different competition (other airlines) that either have more flights or more importantly lower fares, then the airline may decide to change the fares in order to compete. 5.Airfares can also be determined based on the season. Heavy air traffic times (holidays, summer vacation, spring break, etc.) lead to higher prices as the demand grows. This may not be as bad as you may think if you can book your flight way in advance and take advantage of those lower prices that are only offered for a set number of seats (which are still offered during high traffic times, just may be fewer in number and sell quicker). 6.Many planes also carry cargo and that can affect the weight of the plane. This happens more on overseas flights. If you are on a flight that is said to be “full” or “completely sold” and you see a few empty seats, that is due to the fact that each plane has a weight limit and once that limit is reached, they will not allow more passengers on the flight. There are some other factors involved as well and there are actually people at each airline that work specifically on the airfares months in advance. They are not trying to trick you or deceive you when offering prices at a specific rate and then by the time you get to purchase it the price is higher. It is a first-come first-serve system – sometimes, especially if you can purchase your ticket early enough, you will be one of the lucky ones that get the lowest fare. HINT: Some airlines, such as Continental Airlines, offer Low Fare Guarantees that can offer you some satisfaction if you book the fare on their Web site and then find it lower elsewhere. Each one is different, so be sure to check out the airlines Web site directly for details.
8. It seems like they change every few seconds because they do! Almost every travel website is tied into a single central reservation system. Airlines sell a set number of tickets within a fare code for each plane. Each ticket price falls into what's known as a "fare bucket". When one "bucket" is empty, you'll be offered a ticket from the next lowest priced "bucket". Airlines may add certain buckets to the mix on certain dates, so that's why the prices can go back down. Airline fare buckets are one of the most mysterious things in today's world... Since all of the websites are tied into the central reservation system, everything happens real time as you go through the ticket purchase process. You may be purchasing a ticket on Travelocity, but somebody else hit "purchase" for the last ticket in that bucket on Orbitz as you were entering your information.