Q – I’ve been keeping track – in the last three months, I’ve found four low airfares, tried to sell it to my husband, and each time when I got back the price was gone. Do these fares really change like that every fifteen or twenty minutes?
A – We are thinking that you have been victimized by a little known but frequent online practice involving internet air searches. As you are searching specific flight combinations, these web sites can quickly raise the price once you return to the screen to make your purchase. This is highly unethical but it is not yet, illegal. You can fight the practice by going in and deleting your search history, and your cookies (we hope you know what cookies are or you will think we’re insane). You can then go on the site with a fresh search and the original fares will reappear. Airlines do not change their fares every fifteen minutes although the software will automatically raise the fare once a pre-determined number of seats are sold at the lower price. That is why families booking online are often shocked to discover that the entire family is not traveling at the same price despite booking the same seats at the same time.
