Coast2Coast

Something similar happened to me about a month ago. The interesting thing, as another post states is that when I went to another online travel company (I think it was expedia) I was able to get the original price. So, the lesson is that you should look in more than 1 place for the best price.

It is bait and switch, and it does make me angry that we're being taken to the cleaners on little stuff like this.

bocastephen

It may or may not be an illegal pricing practice - but I'm sure a couple dozen formal complaints with the FTC would be enough to get them to knock it off if it's not. If it is an illegal pricing practice, the FTC will get them to knock it off, along with a helpful fine.

fwfdan

For those of you who think you are holding inventory while you are shopping - your are not quite right... If every one shopping held the inventory then no one would ever get to see what it should / might cost.

Compare it to an online store - they have 10 sweaters and want to sell them at $5 each on sale - 100 people put them in their cart - at checkout it verifies the sweater was still available - but sometimes it is not, someone else stole it from your cart! You need to go back and buy a sweater, but all that are left are the $7 ones..... darn, and all I wanted was a sweater.

The systems do their best to predict inventory, but until someone commits to paying the airline they will continue to try to sell the seat to someone... holding it for someone who is only shopping will keep me from getting my cheap seat to disney world!

bocastephen

This is not true. Your inventory is not held while shopping, but once you've selected your flights and click 'buy' and are at the passenger info/payment page, the inventory is held. There should be NO price changes while you are completing the purchase process.

You can test this yourself using the availability tool.

NWAOldtimer

Not quite the same, but last year looking for domestic award tickets on Delta, when I got to the end was told the price in miles was LOWER than first found (40,000->32,500)

fwfdan

I thought people are seeing the change is from the shopping and hitting "buy" prior to entering the credit card number. If I am misunderstanging and it is happening post credit card entry - then I agree that this is not right - but I have never experienced this....

Jaimito Cartero

That's because the DL award system is messed up. Often it shows one award level, but you go and it's only a higher level, or if you're lucky, a lower amount of miles.

bocastephen

There are two points in the transaction where you 'buy' - one is committing to an itinerary after searching, and the next is the final purchase after passenger and billing information is entered.

Once you commit to an itinerary (IIRC, that button is also labeled 'purchase' or 'buy'), the inventory should be locked to you for the duration of the transaction limit (which is coded at the backend). You have 'x' minutes of time to enter your passenger and billing info before the transaction expires. During that period of time, the price should not change.

mooper

It's a market driven by supply and demand. What if the seat you were purchasing was snagged by someone else while you were "in the middle of the transaction"? Consider the stock market... if I see a stock I want at $50/share and I'm in the middle of placing my order and other people snap it up to a degree where the supply/demand interaction results in a price of $51, should I still be entitled to buy it for $50 because I began the purchase action while it was at that price?

GUWonder

Airline ticket transactions between the airline/agent and the customer are not open market order transaction on a US exchange or ECN; rather they are -- if anything -- far more akin to a limit order, so the whole attempt at an analogy on the basis of a "market order" seems a feeble effort to justify customer-unfriendly processes and outcomes.

In the middle of a transaction via a US exchange and/or ECN where the transaction is based on a limit order, how does a stock price change "in the middle of a transaction" without falling foul of legal compliance standards?

I'm looking forward to being amused by the attempt at an answer.

ceieoc

If you place a limit order and the conditions are not met, such as "all or nothing" the transaction should not execute to completion. In the case of this ticket, Delta advises there was a price increase and did not execute your transaction until Delta receives positive approval and acknowledgement of this price change from the buyer. Until you pay Delta for your ticket, your price can increase or decrease.

mooper

Limit orders are only filled IF the price requirement can be met. If it cannot, it will not fill, even in some cases where a transaction better than your price occurs but then "jumps" your price. In the case of the airline transaction, as you point out, you are essentially placing a limit order. If the market price has moved up before you submit it, why would you expect that your order would be filled? If you accept the new, higher price, then you are essentially agreeing to place a market order.

MarqFlyer

Totally different situation.

With the market, you are not online in the middle of the transaction with the person who is going to sell you the stock. You are likely on your broker's website, asking your broker to buy the stock from some other person at the lowest price possible. By the time the broker gets to an actual seller to even begin that transaction, the price may have changed.

In this case, you are already on the seller's (in this case, Delta's) website, in the middle of the transaction with that seller, not some outside third party that Delta has to contact on your behalf. As a result, it is completely different if you are in the middle of a transaction that you have already started with them, and they change the price midway through.

I was about to say "apples and oranges" -- but they aren't even that similar....

Alpha Golf

$1002? They should pay YOU to go to GFK.

GUWonder

There is no intermediary in this DL case.