Remember when cheap flight tickets actually meant something?

I was talking to my neighbor last week about the good old days before dynamic pricing took over. Three years ago I flew from Detroit to Vegas for $98 round trip on a Tuesday. Now I check the same route and it's $300 base plus $50 for a carry on. These algorithms must be tracking every click I make because the price jumps the second I look. Has anyone else noticed how they spike prices after you search the same flight more then once?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.jesse2d ago

I used to be one of those people who thought airlines were just covering their costs and it was fine. Then I booked a flight from Chicago to Orlando back in March, checked the price on a Monday at noon, and by the time I came back from lunch it was $40 more. That changed my whole view on the whole thing. It's like they're actively trying to trick you into buying right that second.

aaron8962d ago

Whoa, I gotta push back a little on this one, @stone.jesse. I get why you're frustrated, but I don't think they're trying to trick you so much as just using a really aggressive pricing algorithm. Basically airlines have software that changes prices based on how many people are looking at the same flight, plus how many seats are left and other data points. That $40 jump probably happened because someone else booked a seat or the system saw a bunch of searches at once. It's annoying for sure, but it's not like a person is sitting there watching you and raising the price on purpose. They're just trying to sell every seat for as much as they can, which is their whole job. Still, I agree it feels slimy when it happens.