wow

[cyrano]

I'm pricing flights to Portland in November, and in the past... two hours, I've watched the prices jump *as I searched* from about $380 to about $750

Comments

[simonepdx.livejournal.com]

Try again tomorrow. They fluctuate daily.

[simonepdx.livejournal.com]

oh, and what's your departure airport?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

SouthWest is offering a round trip for about $300, with free checked bag. I'm doing pretty okay now. (:
Leaving out of DTW

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

The end of the week is a terrible time to search. Tuesdays and Wednesdays generally have good fares. Also consider checking out of GRR and the Chicago airports, none of which are very far.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

So even if I'm looking for a flight that leaves on a weekday, looking for it on a Friday will jack my prices up? That seems really psycho. (I haven't checked GRR, but GoogleMaps says ORD is five and a half hours drive away. PS: It makes me sad that you can't use airport codes on GoogleMaps any more.)

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Yep. The departure date and the search date have no relation that I can tell, at least until you get inside certain X weeks periods (I think it's 6 weeks and 2 weeks). GRR is not often cheaper than DTW, but just enough to make me keep an eye on it. Plus it's hours closer to Mom's house. (Both Chicago and DTW are ~5.5-6 hours away, so my opinion on "close" is skewed. But they're usually some $150-$300 cheaper to fly into than TVC.)

[9thmoon.livejournal.com]

Prices adjust on Tuesday mornings, according to my mother, who camped on websites for a few weeks before buying her tickets to DFW for cheap cheap a couple weeks ago.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain that prices also adjust fourteen days before the flight; although I haven't seen the six-week mark that moses mentions, I have no reason to doubt her.
As soon as the payments I made last night clear, I'll go to SouthWest and get my $360 tickets from them (their prices have not changed since last night...).

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Southwest is the exception to the rule in this, as in many other things. Outside of random sales, I've observed their prices to be very stable until you get right up on the flight date, and even then it's more like the cheap seats just get sold out. The other airlines may work largely the same way in part - maybe we just can't see their full range of price points, so we don't know.

That six-week mark is nebulous in my head, and may not actually exist, or maybe not all the time. It's been a while since I earnestly price-shopped expensive tickets - I've either been driving instead, flying on the company dime, flying Southwest, or using points to buy my last few years of tickets.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah. DTW is about an hour away from me, so the ticket payoff would have to be more dramatic.