How much do flight prices fluctuate?
 

I've been planning honeymoon trip for future wife and I for August of this year to Fiji/Australia (from California) and I've been looking up prices on flights every couple of days. I usually see prices of about $1100/pp, but occasionally it jumps to $1400/pp, then back down after a few days. I was hoping at some point prices may drop a bit. Is the best thing to do just getting it at the low price I've been seeing or do flight prices randomly drop sometimes? Also, if I'm doing a multiple destination flight, odds are there won't be any promotional deals that would pop up, correct? Thanks for any help!

Flight prices can randomly drop from time to time, or they can randomly increase as you are experiencing. They can also deliberately drop or increase, particularly as the departure date approaches depending upon whether ticket sales are slower or faster than the airline anticipates (and also depending upon all sorts of other factors, all of which the airline alone will know).

For those of us with a regular route, we know the general price levels and pull the trigger or wait, depending upon whether the fare is a good one or not. If you haven't got a clue as to what the price should be, then it's very difficult, so the only advice left is: can you afford to wait and pay a potentially higher fare? If not, buy now.

Actually, prices don't fluctuate much at all. What's going on here is that airlines sell tickets in several fare classes, with different privileges and restrictions in each. The initial allocation of tickets to fare classes is based on the airline's best estimate of how many tickets of each type they'll be able to sell. For example, someone might be willing to pay the highest economy fare (typically called Y) if necessary, but will buy a lower-priced ticket with few restrictions (such as the modestly discounted B fare) if it's available. It's to the airline's advantage not to have any B tickets available when this person shows up. They can't manage it that precisely, of course, but they do limit the number of tickets they sell at lower price points in order to force people to pay more or to take less popular flights for which cheap tickets are still available.

The allocation of seats to fare classes is not fixed when a flight is loaded into the reservation system. It's fine-tuned as time goes on, based on how well that flight and other flights are selling. Therefore, the lowest fare for a given flight may seem to fluctuate when it's almost always a low fare class being sold out, becoming available again, and then selling out again. If you check the specific fare class associated with the lowest fare each time, you'll be able to confirm this.

In your case, that $1100 fare is almost certainly in one fare class while the $1400 fare is in another. Fare details will be able to tell you what you get for the extra $300, besides a bigger credit card balance: perhaps it's the ability to change your flight for a fee vs. no changes at all, perhaps it's more frequent flyer mileage credit, perhaps something else.

+1 the above. Also, just in case you are not a very experienced air traveler, prices do tend to rise significantly as you get close to departure date. If you hold off until you are less than 3 or 4 weeks out you could see fares jump quite a bit. You are not there yet but might not want to wait too long.

How much do flight prices fluctuate?
 

Clear out your browser every time you search as that affects prices shown. As others have stated each plane has a bunch of fare buckets which is why the guy next to you paid a different fare.

For what you are trying to do it might be good to contact a travel agent who can put together the fare differently as online will price out separate one way fares for multi segment. Also if you do a package with airline and hotel combo you can often save money over the piecemeal pricing. Tends to be worth travel agent fee IMO

Absolutely true. The two reasons relate to my previous post:

1. The lowest fare classes tend to sell out before that, as vacationers (the most price-conscious travelers) tend to plan in advance and want to lock in low fares.

2. Some low fares have advance purchase requirements, to prevent business travelers who make trips on short notice from using them even if a flight is nearly empty.