Is there a secret to finding the computer glitches for fares??
 

I usually check travelocity and have the fare watcher for where I want to travel--Does anyone find expedia to be better.I read the posts re the unbelievable fares a while back re united fare SFO to paris( something like $28) and also some people who got $375 europe-sydney.Is it just a matter of being online at the right time--lady luck??.Although I live in Phx--I setup my farewatchers based from lax or sfo-it seems I have had better luck in finding cheap fares and then doing phx-lax on my own with Southwest or AmWest.Ido not believe in stealing,but if a store mismarks an item,I do not feel bad about buying it.So also be it,if a fare is listed.So although I would love one of those crazzzy fares,would anyone care to list their most reliable method of finding great fares--via travelocity/expedia or via separate airline sites.I know about priceline and hotwire,but I want the points.thanks

Let me ask you a follow up question.... If you can sneak into a movie theatre with no one seeing you, would you?

There is a new site that is testing a beta-version of a supposedly unweighted fare search that looks thru something like 2 billion flights. It's called orbitz.com and has raised some hub ub b/c the CRS and travel agencies want the Justice dept. to close it down (eventhough it doesn't launch til summer). That's got to tell you something about the potential service...BUT supposedly it would eliminate the back and forth comparisons between sites that are inconsisteant in their flight info. I would suggest taking a look. Cheers

No.I would not but if the movie theatre posted a .50 instead of 5.00 at their entrance,I would hold them to the 50 cent price.

[This message has been edited by bfllover (edited 03-08-2001).]

I checked some stock quotes yesterday on www.quicken.com . It said one stock was up 53,640%. I did not waste any time trying to buy a (newer) mansion and sell the stock as it was an obvious mistake and why waste my time. I nicely suggest you do the same unless you have a large amount of unfilled time.

MisterNice

Corrected as it was 53,640% not a teeny tiny 53.640%

[This message has been edited by MisterNice (edited 03-08-2001).]

"Is there a secret to finding the computer glitches for fares?? "

Yes. It's a secret. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

birdstrike

[This message has been edited by birdstrike (edited 03-08-2001).]

I'll answer the poster's question first, I have no knowledge of any such system. Now, as to the responses, they seem a bit snippy & judgmental save one. Someone asked a question, if one doesn't know the answer, perhaps one should not respond. The comments refering to his/her relative propensity to steal or to be dishonest have nothing to do with the question. I think that is part of what started the fray this past month that has a lot of people leaving.

There are times when quick wit or sarcasm are just itchy to flow across my keyboard, but I control myself. All I'm saying is that a simple question deserves a related answer or no reply at all.

As holder of 7 "crazyfares" San Jose to Paris(and wish I could have gotten 70 more), I agree with your comments Kira. Bfflover, maybe try www.air-fare.com/allsav.htm

If the movie theatre posts a 50-cent admission price when they really mean $5.00, and they tell me about the mistake as I'm buying my ticket - no, I won't argue with them, and I'll pay the $5.00, as long as they fix the sign (unless it's, say, a Kevin Costner movie that I feel is only worth fifty cents, in which case I just won't see it).

However, if they actually go through with it and sell me the movie ticket for 50 cents, and THEN come ask for $4.50 while I'm buying popcorn - that's a different story. Then I'm more likely to try and hold them to the fifty cents.

Misternice: I was checking quotes the other morning, and one of my stocks that usually goes for around $7 - $8 opened at $77.50!! I freaked for about five seconds, and then realized that a decimal point had been moved. By 10AM, everything was fixed and my cr*ppy little stock was back under eight bucks.

The problem with most of those services is they only sweep once a day; IAF (www.air-fare.com) only runs on non-holiday weekdays. So the odds are you'll miss out on the vast majority of normal "fare specials," let alone "glitches."

Hmm... while we are talking about taking advantage on other's misktake. If the boarding gate is changed and shows the wrong one on the display screen and ticket. Do I get the right to go into the other aircraft parked at the gate shown? Like paying to go to New York and ending up in a free trip in Hawaii? Maybe you should also tell me how to sneak into the airplane without a boarding pass?

Like someone suggested previously, if you do not have answers, don't answer.




Oh yeah... I am into sarcasm today.

I think one of the best ways to stay on top of any situations that one might like to 'take advantage of as quickly as possible' is keep current here at FT. The Paris opportunity was reported here pretty early the day it happened and the happy people who read the post and jumped on the opportunity are going to Paris for less than it takes a family to get through a McDonalds drive-thru. There was risk/reward involved at the time also....they didn't really know whether their credit cards would be charged with the full fare once the glitch was discovered. The reward was that United decided to take the high road and do the right thing and honor the tickets at the 'glitched' price. The Estonia-Australia thread developed much the same way. Both of these instances turned out well for the folks who jumped on it. Just keep in mind that USUALLY 'If ya pay for half a haircut, ya get.....half a haircut.'

I think that people here at FT are a very diverse, intelligent, interesting, and international bunch. What everyone seems to have in common: earning miles, living life to the fullest, and sharing what they know. I'd say, "Stay tuned to FT", monitor the Travelocity Dream Map, and possibly subscribe to the Expedia service that will email you if one of your city-pairs goes on sale (but that is limited to just a few city-pairs).

Another one of those Glitchy Fares showed up a couple of days ago (I can't find the thread right now), but it was fixed very quickly and I don't think anybody was able to take advantage of it.

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Don't wait for your ship to come in. Build one.

In the vein of trying to answer the thread-starter's original serious question...the $27 left coast to europe mistake and the $350 Tallinn to Sydney mistake are rare events. I think it would consume a lot of time looking for them.

It is more common to find real bargain published fares like the $54RT UA IND-SNA, $74RT UA EWR-IAH, $120RT CO WAS-LAX, $198RT UA WAS-AMS/MUC/FRA, $168RT CO WAS-SEA, etc.

These are found by checking air-fare at 9am ET and digitalcity at about the same time and spot checking sources like travelocity and expedia daily for about 10 minutes in the early morning. And of course the FT Mileage Run forum. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif And then acting promptly if of interest.

IMO the fare watcher email from Travelocity reaches me one day too late.

Agree with you Kira.

One of your sorurces, and, I stress only one, should be www.bestfares.com They post the specials 3 times a day on weekdays, less on weekends, after the airlines post their specials for the next 4-8 hour window. Go to the snooze you loose section. Its a pain to do this 3 times a day, but can be very rewarding. You need to check the airlies sites for specials as well.
In my opinion, like everything else, the more effort you put into the hunt, the more rewarded you will be.

At what point does an airfare become so low that it's considered a "glitch"? At what point does it become unethical, in some opinions, to book it?

For example: I needed to do a last-minute MCI-TPA one-way trip last year. On American and United, the fare was $650+. On TWA, the fare was $66 (no kidding). I immediately booked the TWA fare - and sure enough it ticketed fine and I flew to TPA via STL. Was this a glitch? Should I have called TWA directly and said "you know, I just found an obnoxiously low fare on your site, are you *sure* you meant to offer that?" The ratio of typical fare to crazyfare was about 10-to-1, similar to what the San Jose people got to Paris.

Since I'm slightly off-topic, I might as well keep going: I also would say that $47 trips to Paris *could* be legitimate. For example, when I was living in DC, SpanAir announced that the first hundred or so pax that booked the inaugural Dulles-Madrid flight would go for free, plus tax. I've also read about situations where airlines will temporarily drop fares to very low levels to send signals to each other. Since AA is expanding service to San Jose, it wouldn't have surprised me if that was the explanation for the crazyfares to Paris (it turns out it was not - at least officially).