Originally Posted by
Admiral Ackbar
To be precise, not just AC does this but every e-commerce site tracks and some adjust. I wasn't saying AC is evil and only AC does this. Believe what you wish but don't put words in my mouth thank you very much.
I'm part of the people that do not believe this AC pricing voodoo.
Airline pricing and inventory availability is very well disclosed on EF, and I have never seen AC try to sell me a Z fare when P space is available, or try to fool me by selling me a P fare for more expensive than what it's listed that.
The only way it seems that AC would do this is if they would change the inventory live by zeroing out P fares just for you, and you know what? I really doubt they'd zero out their inventory just to get your specific dollars.
The only people I know that complain about this "price voodoo" are people that check fares every single day, multiple times a day. But hey guess what, seats are bought/sold throughout the day, they aren't just there waiting for you.
The only times I noticed "pricing voodoo" on my end was basically my own mistake. Searching for 1 seats instead of 2 seats when it's P1, and then wondering why I see the Z fare price when I am trying to book. Or accidental picking the wrong sate on the calendar and not suddenly not respecting the Saturday or 7 days requirement.
I don't know much about the airline industry RM gimmicks, but despite the fact I believe they play with fare availability when there are spikes in demand (which I think is mostly done passively through fare buckets/seats release) I honestly sincerely doubt that they are changing prices specifically because some dude is pulling out prices from AC.com.
Besides, didn't OP say he was going to book 5 PE seats? I'm almost willing to bet that all he is experiencing is fluctuations in inventory levels or errors behind keyboard.
If anyone has convincing proof that AC actually manipulates fares live and is specifically concerned about fluctuating the fares I look for, than please show me. I want to see it so I can believe it.
And no, screen shots of "look, the price just changed 5 minutes after I searched" doesn't count. I want to clearly see an EF fare price different than AC.com price booking in the same bucket code, and pricing differently for different people at the same time.