ThankYou Reward travel engine limitations/bugs
Mar 12, 2012, 11:31 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,093
ThankYou Reward travel engine limitations/bugs
When I tried to book three seats on the Thankyou engine recently, I found something strange.
The flight I want has the following fare buckets available: 1 ticket at $100, 1 ticket at $200, 7+ tickets at $300 (to illustrate I simplify the numbers). When I ask for 1 ticket, the engine grabs the $100 ticket and ask for around 8k points. But when I ask for 3 tickets, it requires 72k points. The fare engine can not grab the two tickets at the lower price buckets.
I wonder if this has been the experience with other travelers as well. Also, is Chase card's engine any better in this?
The flight I want has the following fare buckets available: 1 ticket at $100, 1 ticket at $200, 7+ tickets at $300 (to illustrate I simplify the numbers). When I ask for 1 ticket, the engine grabs the $100 ticket and ask for around 8k points. But when I ask for 3 tickets, it requires 72k points. The fare engine can not grab the two tickets at the lower price buckets.
I wonder if this has been the experience with other travelers as well. Also, is Chase card's engine any better in this?
Mar 12, 2012, 7:30 pm
#2
formerly known as daveland
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: NY, NY, USA
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LTP, Delta Platinum, Hilton Honors Diamond, Wyndham Diamond
Posts: 2,969
Wouldn't Travelocity, Expedia, or even a site like AA.com do the exact same thing? The only way around is booking 1 ticket, 1 ticket, and then the rest.
Mar 12, 2012, 8:47 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,750
The booking engines tie directly to airline inventories. Airlines have limit on each fare bucket and usually the lowest one often has only 1 ticket available for sale. When you take 2 tickets the airline site automatically prices the tickets at the higher fare base.
The only way to get around it is 1 at a time. And dont expect every subsequent ones would be as cheap as the previous one.
The only way to get around it is 1 at a time. And dont expect every subsequent ones would be as cheap as the previous one.
Mar 12, 2012, 10:52 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,093
I have limited knowledge of different fare engine/GBS. But my company's fare engine will always get the cheaper fares and average out (I think it's tied to Amadeus). I always thought Expedia will do the same but never tried.
Mar 13, 2012, 2:47 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,750
AFAIK, airline websites do not average out the fares - when the intended purchase has more tickets than the available for the lowest fare bucket, the airline sites always give you the HIGHER fares for ALL the tickets you want to purchase, despite there are still 1 or 2 available at the lowest bucket.
More over, if you try again and again in short time span, the sites would not give you the lowest fare any more even if you only ask for 1.