The CO inventory system does not have the capability to differentiate between booking requests based on individual. Every person searching for seats has the same chance of grabbing the lowest fare. As far as I know, there is no fare elasticity calculation embedded in the inventory availability based on OnePass number.

However, Point of Sale does discriminate fares based on origin location, so that might be a factor but unlikely.

Chances are you searched for the flights too many times and drove up the marginal fare calculator in the RES system which is dynamically driven based on future demand as has been stated.

No shady dealings.

None of my split personalities is wacky enough to believe CO is doing this (not that it can't be done, mind you), not even my Mr. Monk personality who has no problem checking a flight price twice daily for six months or more. (Most people don't plan as far out as yours truly.) When doing this daily checking for weeks on end, I routinely notice the price go up and down, often by seemingly set amounts. Might be $340, then $310, then $370, then back to $340, varying by $30 each time, but it's not because anyone is checking the prices. If you're paranoid, you might believe CO is messing with you personally. They're not. CO only messes with me personally. Just ask my psychiatrist at the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, VERY Nervous.

There are a couple of things to think about here:

1) The GDS and the websites are not linked in real-time. This is why sometimes when you go to book something it will tell you that the fare is no longer available. This is what happens when you mix 1960's era technology with 1990's.

2) We're talking about a company here that can't even manage basic CRM tasks and you think they're doing advanced real-time demand pricing models? These are the same people who e-mail me telling me that I'm close to making Platinum when I'm already Plat.

Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

LOL!!

B7

Yeah, these same people sent me a Mileathon email today, and when I clicked on the link, it told me to come back on 9/1 when it starts. Their EUA is ridden with loopholes where people can circumvent the priority just by being at the right place at the right time.

There's no way they're doing this.

Now for us paranoids who are lower tier computer jocks:
What is the easiest way to clear cache and/or cookies, as described above?

In IE click Tools | Internet Options. In the middle of that dialog there should be a section labeled "Browsing History" with a delete button in it. In FireFox 3.x click Tools | Clear Private Data.

For what it's worth, I have had the opposite experience more than a few times, but that happens for BusinessFirst bookings made around midnight Houston time when, I suspect, CO releases unsold or canceled inventory. Every now and then, the difference is such that it's "buy now, ask questions later."

You might also investigate http://www.ccleaner.com/ CCleaner. Free, no spy- or ad- ware, over 300 MM in use, and one click removes unwanted cookies, etc.

Install Google Chrome and use the Incognito mode.

Renard - you must BUY, not just find a lower fare on another site to claim the LFG. All the screen shots in the world won't help. Actually makes sense, too, as those lower fares are quite often unavailable when you try to complete the purchase to say nothing about what shenanigans someone with basic Photoshop skills could try to pull.

+1

I and my coworkers have noticed this curious behavior many times.

I've noticed the behavior too, but after waiting for a little bit, the price reverts to its original.

So, I'm also in the camp that the earlier search caused the last seats in the bucket to be pulled (which is actually a good thing, if you think about it -- once you click on a fare, you want those seats reserved for you so that the fare doesn't go up while you are completing the transaction). Once the earlier search times out, the seats are released back into inventory.

I am sure that this is exactly what is happening.