sbiddle

Are you referring to the NBR story written by somebody who doesn't unstandard the basics of airline booking classes?

sbiddle

As somebody who tends to book flights most weeks I've yet to see a single piece of evidence that suggests this is happening. This is very different to some US hotel chains (with 99% of Las Vegas hotels being a classic example) where dynamic pricing is the norm.

Airline pricing is a very open process - anybody can look online and see the fare table showing every available booking class and fare for Air NZ flights. It's also possible to look at tools with GDS integration to see (within reason) what booking classes are available on a flight and the number of seats remaining in that class.

I'm not quite sure how such an open system could really be compatible with the methodology of dynamic pricing which relies on such information not being available to the public.

If you look at the NBR article it shows a real lack of understanding in how airlines work - pricing going up and down on a daily basis happens for many reasons, including fare holds from with the website and travel agents expiring and seats being released back into the system, and the reality that airlines can (and do) remove and add booking classes from flights. None of this is dictated by browsing habits or cookies.

Kamadan

Agree 100%

I have not seen this at all in the past few years of booking flights with NZ, be in domestic, short or long haul international. In fact during the recent USA sale I had a particular set of dates lined up and would check almost every 2nd-3rd day for availability, took me 2 weeks to finalize everything before getting the flights. Price remained the same throughout, on the same computer with/without me logged in, using the same browser.

I have also done "complex" co-ordinating with groups of friends getting domestic tickets as well, again, usually takes me a week or so to actually purchase the tickets but price did not change throughout the process (at the same booking class).

Fast6

link?

sbiddle

NBR story which is behind a Paywall so you'll need a subscription to view it.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/inside-...es-cg-p-184751

NZbutterfly

My partner told me about this but I fobbed him off saying I've never seen it. Of course prices have gone up on occasion but that's more a case of you snooze you lose. Most of the time I get my price.

dadig

At most I've seen pricing differences between GAS and the standard website for the exact same flights and travel itinerary

sbiddle

This has been the case for a while now but in my testing only happens for F class (GAS only) international fares.

If you search the GAS and Air NZ websites and you'd see the exact same fares for a flight. Both use the same booking engine and if you manually edit the URL from flightbookings.airnz.co.nz to flightbookings.grabaseat.co.nz you can add/remove the GAS logo at the top.

There is obviously something in the referrer URL or code that detects the flight search from the GAS site and displays and this only for F class international fares. This is understandable as F class is not a regular fare (no SP/APD earn and not upgradeable) so there would be confusion if it was able to be booked directly from the Air NZ branded booking engine.

I've never seen this occur for domestic flights or non F class international - in my experience the same price will always displays when you search from either site and at times I've picked up a few bargains when the GAS website has crashed under load but the fares are still fully accessible from the Air NZ website if you search for the dates.

Kamadan

F class earns SP... I am sure that was just a typo on your end

Have done numerous Status Points run via GAS domestic flights. 8SP is the minimum you get, even on $1 fares.

sbiddle

Oops yes I meant no APD earn, you do earn SP on F class fares - but the earn rate is terrible.

F class is only international though.

johnnyfive

Ah sorry. I get what you mean. Yes I agree!

But to follow up on my new point. I have found that the list AirNZ provides is in fact limited. If you look up flights on ITA between two cities that require or have connection options. Say DUD-AKL. You will geta big list that you can book via Expedia or your TA, but AirNZ won't show you all the connection options. The caveat of booking through Expedia is that they only show you Seat+Bag options...

Colours

I realise this is an old-ish thread but have just joined FT. Last night I was booking a SIN-Auck flight, PE class, I clicked to upgrade and a great price with the words 'deal' popped up, business at only $808 to upgrade, so I clicked that, selected the seat and went to the next page, review and pay. I left it open for 5 mins to check with my husband. when i went back to pay, words in red popped up saying it was no longer available at that price and was now $1,500!!! I bit the bullet and paid, that same seat was available and no other seats had been taken in the meantime. What a nasty algorithym, eh?!

LyingFlat

Probably nothing to do with an algorithm and more to do with someone else buying the seats whilst you were away from your PC.

sbiddle

I find fairly regularly prices go up between looking and clicking confirm because seats have gone. There is nothing out of the ordinary about this, but it's incredibly annoying.

dadig

I've had that for Q300 regional flights but that also was associated with seat being taken. Although having no other seats taken is strange