Rob562

I've come across a pricing oddity that I'm wondering if anyone has seen before...

I'm looking to fly from BOS to MCO the morning of Thurs, June 2nd. Flight 955 is ideal for me, but it's currently an insanely-high $418. It's been like this for a week or two, and only 10-12 seats are sold.
All other non-stops that day and on surrounding days are in the $143-$163 price range. (A bit higher than when I first started looking into my trip, but still reasonable)

A few weeks ago, when I was first starting to plan the trip, that exact flight was oddly sold out for a day or two, then reverted back to the current dozen seats sold.

I'm thinking that perhaps an incorrect group booking accidently booked the entire flight, and now some pricing algoritm within the B6 system thinks that this single flight is very-high-demand and adjusted pricing accordingly?

Has anyone seen this before? Is there someone at B6 that can be contacted to have them look into a possible pricing glitch and get it rectified?

-Rob

Dieuwer

Who says it's a glitch? Perhaps this flight IS in high demand for reasons unknown to us.
If you think the fare is too high, why don't you book the earlier or later flight?
Also, did you know that you can get a travel credit if the fare of your purchased flight drops?

jetBlueNYFL

Welcome to FT! First, of all, how do you know the number of seats sold? Since load factors are not public information, you don't know for sure. If you are using the seat map, keep in mind that it is possible that seats may not have been assigned. Also, maybe that particular flight has been in high demand on that date previously. Who knows...air fares can be odd at times.

LiaJB

It could potentially be a groups booking, they generally don't do seat assignments (or even firm numbers) until a week or so before hand... so it's entirely possible that a good number of the seats are already taken, even if you don't see them saved on the seat map yet.

Do any of the other flight times work for you? One thing I've suggested to people before, especially when there's a $300 difference is to consider the same day change option.

Granted, it does require that there still be open seats on the flight you wanted that day, so it can be a bit of a gamble, but if one flight is "ideal" and the other is "workable but less ideal" you can possibly make it work. All you do is book the flight that is "workable but less than ideal", and the day you're planning to depart, you contact 1-800-JetBlue and ask to do a same day change to the flight you originally wanted. If there are any seats left on that particular flight, it would only be $40 per person to change to the flight you wanted... which is a good sight less than the $300 difference currently.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

Rob562

Thanks for the explanation about group booking's seat assignments. I had a feeling that's how they were handled, but wasn't positive.

As an addendum to this story, today the flight in question went back down in price to match the other BOS-MCO non-stops that day. (So of course I booked it)

Thanks, guys.

-Rob