TLDR, but this may be helpful
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...fares/2121981/

Very interesting article, as is the following, which is linked to the article mentioned above:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...story/2021993/

And here I was naively thinking that this was a relatively recent matter! I'm just like a grad student who suddenly thinks he or she has come up with a novel and revolutionary way of tackling something.

If dynamic pricing is to be individualised in a discriminatory manner (and this time I'm placing a negative value on the word 'discriminatory') as a matter of policy rather than implemented fairly across the board or whether price fluctuations are currently an unintended 'artefact' of airline pricing procedures, it seems to me that unless consumers are given a loud and public heads-up about such policies this is an unfair business practice.

Are you people not booking IATA fares?

If you're on pretty much any major airline, the pricing is a combination of the fare plus routing plus availability. Unless you're running into a married segments issue, it should be the same regardless of how you book it.

Now, I do know there have been complaints that Delta's system charges people more than the ticket is supposed to be, but in these cases, I would just go to Orbitz or similar to get the correct price.

Maybe I'm the only person who starts all their ticket purchases at ita matrix and expertflyer, but I've yet to have a flight I couldn't book at the right price somewhere when the availability and fare is there.

TongaTrev, is this your school thesis or something?

Seriously, it is easy to find situations where the same seat prices differently in real-time, but it's due to flaws in how overlapping airline GDS systems hold and price inventory. They're not deliberately out to get you. Price something with at least 7 seats left on multiple computers/browsers and compare if you're think you're being slighted.

In reply to TravelerMSY:

No, not writing a theseis on this topic. What you're witnessing is simply a combination of a long, convoluted writing style, a little time on my hands, and what I consider to be a healthy curiosity about how 'the system' works.
Did you have time to read the articles linked to in messages #16 and #17? They're a more succinct validation of my concerns. These concerns do not extend to airlines being "deliverately out to get [me]". If - and I stress the IF - 'personalised dynamic pricing' is how the airlines do indeed conduct their business I think consumers should be aware of this so that they can conduct their product searches in a more informed manner. There's no reason we should continue to placidly accept fare fluctuations as 'the cost of doing business'.....even if they're only "due to flaws in how overlapping airline GDS systems hold and price inventory". By the way, I'm not at all sure it's appropriate to compare the possible flaws of airline GDS systems (which are inexcusable on their own) with entry into the more circumscribed and thus theoretically more operationally reliable, stable and neutral network cluster of a specific airline or airline alliance.

When using public transport you're aware that there are often peak and off-peak fares. What you don't expect is to check prices for a specific journey only to be told by the bus driver that the price had risen because their automated system figured your early enquiries indicate that you - and only you - could be steered into paying a small premium for that particular journey regardless of actual seating capacity or, alternatively, because of artefactual unintended flaws in the computerised system that tracks capacity, demand and mere interest in their service.

I probably will do as you suggest and check out specific routes from different computers. Would be an interesting exercise..........