Originally Posted by
bitterproffit
I always use Google Flights to track pricing because I’ve noticed on (at least) the Delta app that the more you search for a flight the more likely the price goes up. I might be paranoid, but I still suspect that the airlines boost the price the more you look at it. We’ve all gotten emails from American Airlines saying “ are you still looking at that trip to Miami?” or a note on the United app saying “hey, you should complete your purchase to IAD that you looked at three weeks ago”. So we know they track our searches.
Several times I have clicked through Google flights to the airline website and found a price and trip combo that I couldn’t get by searching the website by itself. So, if I’m going to track flight prices, I’m going to do it on Google Flights.
Track your searches yes, but use that to change the price of the flight there and then, no. What happens when you search a fare is a temporary booking is held depending on how far into the booking flow you get. Some are only a matter of 15min, others (like QF) are up to 2359 the following day. Each search you make 'holds' a seat - if there was only one seat in the bucket and you go back and look again before the original is released, the next available fare will show.