Not really. Someone could have bought the seats and not put in a seat selection.

Alternatively, a travel agent could have reserved seats on that flight without payment and not have entered seat requests.

Well it was very late at night in Singapore when I was booking, so long after office hours, and the equivalent of about 3am NZ time.

If you don't mind me asking how much was the original PE quote? Or if you remember how much was business when clicking through originally?

You mean somebody at NZ left the computer running after office hours, and it naughtily changed the price in your ticket?

There is of course the possibility there are still bugs in the new booking engine.

It took them probably 6-7 months to fix the major issue where once you got to the payment screen that any movements backwards (such as back to the main fare screen) effectively locked out those fares and seats.

On a couple of occasions I booked flights to AU and forgot to select mix fares on one of the sectors (I often book 1 pax with a bag when traveling with my GF). If I'd go back to change the fare type you'd then get the seat select screen telling you the seats you selected were allocated, and then get to the payment screen and find the far class I originally had was now sold out and unavailable. These would both release a few hours later.

Nickolash, that is a rather sarcastic reply. I was answering a PP who didn't think the change was due to an algorythm. I don't know how these things work so have joined this site seeking information. Fact is, on an upgrade flagged as a deal at $808, when I cclicked review and pay, some red type appeared saying the fare was no longer available and the the price jumped to $1,500. A near 100% increase seems rather odd. Especially when I then paid the new price and the same seat was available and there were no seat changes elsewhere. So makes one very wary when taking up anything flagged as a deal as you now never really know what the price is going to be.

NZButterfly, the original PE quote was $2060. The Biz was $3,500. I had clicked PE when a prompt came up with the upgrade offer, PE to Biz at $808. (It also showed an offer of Economy to PE also at $808, flagged as a Deal.)

But you did know the deal and chose not to take it. You left it sitting for five minutes. Nothing complicated or tricky about that. The seat being available is irrelevant as people don't always choose seats when booking.

Mmmmm, I'd tend to disagree. What if you need to pee in the middle of making a booking? She clicked through the purchase process without, apparently, encountering any timeout warnings, account signouts, etc, and the fare changed? That's not right. Sheesh, even when I order lunch at work, I have a timer from when the sandwich is placed into the cart telling me how long I have to complete the order.

Pretty sure that there are rules surrounding fare pricing in cases like this. Either the poster was gone for 10'+ and the fare was released (and/or she got signed out), or she got on the wrong side of a bug in the booking engine.

It'll be the former. No bug. Just efficient pricing. Caveat emptor.

NZ have always made it clear that bookings are not confirmed and no seats are held until a booking reference is issued.

If the website was offering Colours the last 2 seats in J class (as there were 2 pax), it is very likely that one of two things occurred during the 5 minutes that Colours was away from their computer.

1. A person booked a J class seat reducing the availability to J1. This means that the customer would not longer be able to book two people on the 'deal'

2. Someone booked two or more seats in biz reducing J inventory to J0.

This happens all the time. Just try booking flights during a major event period and you will get the "Sorry, no more seats available" message constantly.

I have to admit I've never had this flag or deal come up when booking. I figure if they have a sale price then it's usually just advertised on the page. It seems a weird way of advertising given there are also RUs, one ups etc if seats not sold. How do I get in on these NZ pop up deals?? I booked PE AKL to SIN recently for 2017 and nyada!!

I made a seat selection on NZ just the other day and the seat I wanted was taken right underneath my nose! So someone had completed the process and confirmed things before I did and I had to select elsewhere. I don't think it was just held as I waited a while and it never came free again but it's possible.

NZ Butterfly, there is a small box at the bottom that says Upgrade, next to proceed, when u have selected your flights (if u are logged in with yr airpoints number so system recognises yr relevant status.)

How funny, I've never made that observation. I've only used the upgrades (although that's RUs and elite APD upgrades) after I've made the booking and gone back into it. I'll have a play with that later - especially if there's the potential for a cheaper price on offer! Cheers!

I've never seen it offer a "special" price, it's simply the same fare difference as selecting PE or BP in the first place.