Last night on continental.com, the roundtrip fare for PVD-SJC was $211. When I called Onepass Elite to book tickets they insisted the lowest fare was $231. I hung up to call back less than a minute later and the price had increased to $251. I hung up again and called back and the price again changed to $231. Ticked off at Continental, I searched nwa.com and their lowest fare was ONLY $162 for the exact flight (on Continental Airline) on the same date that Onepass had quoted me $251 only a minute earlier. How is it possible that Northwest Airlines can sell seats on Continental Airlines for so much cheaper than Continental can sell for their own planes? I know Northwest and Continental are partner airlines, but $162 and $251 is a BIG difference.

Don't even try to understand airline pricing, it'll just drive you crazy , buying a ticket is like throwing the dice, one thing, though, if they give you a good price on the phone make a reservation and they'll hold the fare until the next evening.

Some people will fly CO but not NW, this let's them discount their own product without discounting it to their own ignorant loyal passengers, for the savvy flyer this can save big $$$

[This message has been edited by snake (edited 06-30-2001).]

Continental and Northwest must price their tickets independently even if the NW "flight" is actually on the very same CO metal. The government considers it price fixing for CO and NW to discuss *any* pricing of seats regardless of where the seats are.

So sometimes you end up with the odd result of NW tickets being cheaper than CO tickets on the same CO plane. Also you will occasionally find CO tickets cheaper than NW tickets on the same NW plane. The two airlines do share seat inventory on these flights though.

It's "yield management". The computer just keeps sweeping the database, and as seats sell it pushes the fares around. For some reason, this happens a lot on weekends. No guarantees, but try on Monday or Tuesday (if you have time). Often it goes back down.