Midnight Madness with the Airlines?

[WOODMAN]

I have been dancing with the airlines for several weeks now regarding an upcoming trip to the Philippines (in 2 months), and I finally settled on Delta as my carrier, for a variety of reasons. I chose the particular flights I wanted, and then settled down to wait for a sale. I activated Kayak"s price notification feature, and they have been dutifully sending me daily fare updates, as requested. So far, so good. Well, I had been watching this for a month or two, and the fare seemed to hover right around $1450 RT from MSP to MNL. It would go down 20-30 dollars, and then go up 20-30 dollars, etc, etc. Not much real change. Once it dipped all the way to $1400, and I thought about grabbing it, but I thought "no, we have time and they can do better.." Next day it was back up to $1470. Hunh! And so it went. Then, late last Tuesday night, I got to thinking about all I had read about this on various travel blogs and such. The thinking varied from "Try late at night on Tuesday, because that's when they run their big sales!" to "No, that won't work. Airline pricing models and computers are way too sophisticated for that!" , and so forth. Well, here I was at 2AM on Tuesday, so I thought "what the heck", and fired Delta's website up. $1250! OMG! Naturally I grabbed it, and locked myself in for two fares without any difficulty. Next morning, back up to $1460 again. 8 hours later! Whew! So, my question is, have any of you run into this stuff also? Is it generally worth staying up into the wee hours to hunt down your best fares? And is Tuesday really the magic day? I am interested in your experiences.

 

[Trucha]

The flights have been totally weird. I've been looking into SE asia all year (which has been remarkably stable) and it seems like in the last couple of weeks the fares have really changed. Although, the thing that is making me crazy is that my wife and I will be looking at the same time on two different computers and are coming up with different results. Especially on the stops and flying times.

 

[Hank49]

I fly Belize to HNL and MNL pretty much every year. And yes, I've seen the prices fluctuate like you're saying. I don't know why, when or how, but I don't spend enough time trying to get the cheap ones.

 

[victorzamora]

One interesting thing is incognito mode or switching browsers drives prices down as well. Lots of documentation that airlines know you'll by the tickets if you look frequently so the prices stay high for you.

---------- Post added February 2nd, 2015 at 03:59 PM ----------

Also, matrix.itasoftware.com is a Google powered flight search site. It's been giving me the best luck so far, especially in terms of how far ahead to book.

 

[Kharon]

One interesting thing is incognito mode or switching browsers drives prices down as well. Lots of documentation that airlines know you'll by the tickets if you look frequently so the prices stay high for you.

Couldn't you just look a lot then clear all cookies? Would that do the same thing?

 

[victorzamora]

It would not. Look it up, there's a lot of explanation of how it works, but most sites track you internally. Clearing cookies helps with dive sites but is NOT comprehensive. They track your computer and THEY know when YOU are looking. Cookies are to help you.

 

[DandyDon]

Yep, after midnight on Wednesday mornings for US airlines is when I find the best fares, generally. Fewer people shopping midweek, and they clear held inventories around then.

The flights have been totally weird. I've been looking into SE asia all year (which has been remarkably stable) and it seems like in the last couple of weeks the fares have really changed. Although, the thing that is making me crazy is that my wife and I will be looking at the same time on two different computers and are coming up with different results. Especially on the stops and flying times.

AIRLINES TRACK INDIVIDUALS SHOPPING AND WILL JERK YOU AROUND! Shop at Matrix, find your best, then buy those flights at those fares at the airline. You may have to get tough with the airline site, booking specific flights by number to force the hidden fare to show up. You might have to call & complain.

One interesting thing is incognito mode or switching browsers drives prices down as well. Lots of documentation that airlines know you'll by the tickets if you look frequently so the prices stay high for you.

Also, matrix.itasoftware.com is a Google powered flight search site. It's been giving me the best luck so far, especially in terms of how far ahead to book.

Yep, they identify your computer well and play their games. I don't know if incognito is enough. Use Matrix.

Couldn't you just look a lot then clear all cookies? Would that do the same thing?

Nope. Used to work, but they've become much more devious.