Originally Posted by
Cambo
Yes, mister kia, let me help you: This does not have to be in the Amadeus portal, though this is typically tooling, created by the airline, fed with query reportings, to "help" the staff monetize on these things. And from there, just manual fine-tweaking the availability spread over the booking classes.
And, no, there were no 3-4 people booking, since the overall availability didn't decrease (nor the number of seats occupied in the seat map), only less availability in the booking class I would be interested in.
Sure, if there are manual fine-tweaking of the availability spread based on query reportings, no one can stop them. This is possible. I would not completely rule it out. You however said in your previous post,
Originally Posted by
Cambo
... the "AI" behind the website will notice this and decreases the availability for the lower booking classes ...
And this is the part I have serious doubt on. Even if this "AI" is not developed by Amadeus, it would need to be well-integrated with Amadeus to make it happen (for those airlines that use Amadeus).
How do you know the overall availability didn't decrease. Why do you assume a booking definitely has seat assigned? Seat maps are not always a reliable indicator of seat availability. It is also possible it was a coincidence: LH simply decided to change the availability of the particular flight combination due to other reasons, unrelated to your search.
Originally Posted by
brunos
This has nothing to do with Amadeus.
Big airlines have their own yield management system. They have history of all flight searches. They know which flight you searched in the past (by FFP number and possibly IP).Some even send emails a day later to suggest you complete your booking, eventhough I only looked at the flight and its fare.
The issue is whether that affects the airline yield management and fare availability. It is not only fare bucket, but also fare basis availability within a fare bucket.
Yield management systems have got extremely sophisticated at some airlines, and are a best-guarded secret. Hence, there will be no "proof".
But my personal experience, and that of some friends, is that if you search repeatedly for a flight and its price, its fare increases. And that is different from the "hold" function that you properly describe.
I don't wish to detail here, but I am fully convinced about AF and their domestic flights.
I understand that this is no "proof" and that there are believers on both side.
I have no doubts the airline has a log of searches tied to IP address and possibly FFP number. Since you said there will be no proof on whether this affects fare availability and said there will be believers on both side, I can't say much at this point. I however must point out there is no such thing as "fare basis availability within a fare bucket." A fare (identified by its fare basis) is either filed or not filed. A fare bucket either exists or don't (with married segment control considered). If there is a fare (with all rules including but not limited to advance purchase, etc.) and the fare bucket is available for the point of sale, origin, and destination (taking into account of other flights in the PNR), the fare can be used. You will not run into a situation, using CX as an example, where V class LIGHT's availability got taken out, while V class ESSENTIAL remains available.