Hi all

I use Farewatcher to keep an eye on air fares at Travelocity (MEL-LAX route).

I just got an email as I usually do as follows

* MEL-LAX FROM: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (MEL)
TO: LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX)
PRICE: NEW PRICE WAS DIFFERENCE
--------- ------- ----------
$895.00 $268.00 +$627.00

$268?

I didn't get any email about this drop in fares? When was the price $268? That's $US but still amazingly cheap. anybody know of this fare?

cheers Peter

So, did you or didn't you get notice abot the fare change? I'm so confused.

The new math trips up the best of us, Peter.

[This message has been edited by essxjay (edited 06-30-2000).]

Sorry

It doesn't read well does it? Just a formatting problem.

MEL-LAX FROM: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (MEL)
TO: LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX)
NEW PRICE WAS DIFFERENCE
--------- ------- ----------
895.00 $268.00 +$627.00

Every time there is a change in price I get one of these emails but as you can see the price has risen from $268 to $895

I never got an email saying the price had dropped to $268 - otherwise I would have seriously considered buying the airfare.

Is the $268 fare available I woneer Mel to Lax return?

If so please somebody email me at [email protected] and explain to me how to bring it up. Hopefully somebody more experienced with Travelocity than I can explain this strangely low fare.

Must be Qantas voodoo methinks

cheers Peter

It was probably a mistake (the $268 fare). Perhaps it was only that price for a very short time, too little for Fare Watcher to notice, but then a few hours after it went back up, you got the increase notice. I believe it takes several hours AFTER a fare change for Travelocity fare watcher to find out about it. it coul dhave just been that low fare for a matter of minutes before it was changed again. How incredible would that have been to purchase a ticket at that price?!?

Stranger things have happened.

Interestingly I have noticed from my travelocity reports that sometimes the price for a given route will fall then a few days later go up again and then a couple of days later drop back fall to the same level it fell to earlier.

I'll keep watching the fares for the next few days and see what happens...

You never know

cheers peter

In the past i have also gotten the notice that the fare had risen with no prior notice that it had dropped. I now look regularly at the home page of Travelocity to chck my Fare Watcher cities and have noticed that sometimes my cities are not listed but a generic group and have to repost. If i'm really interested in a fare i check shortly after the times that the new fares are posted and hopefully before they are changed so if an error fare is posted can get it before it is corrected.

[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited 06-30-2000).]

magic111,
Your post saying that you check Travelocity shortly after new fares are posted got my attention. Does that mean there�s a given time of the day when fares are loaded into the CRS? I�d love to know, so I can also check Travelocity at that time! Please let me know.
Yonatan

I believe that the times are EST (eastern standard time) 9am noon 5pm and midnite during the week - not sure about the weekends. Perhaps some TA will come on and tell us. Anyway those are the times that i use.

[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited 06-30-2000).]

Travelocity searches your city pairs once a day for fares and sends you email if they've changed by a certain amount. So if it checked and it was $895, and then the price went down but went back up before your next scan, perhaps it picked that up. Or maybe you missed your email.

I'm not sure you can count on either Travelocity or Expedia to notify you in a timely manner of fare decreases. I get these emails once in a blue moon, but fares change daily.

It probably wasn't a fare at all. Clearly a mistake, and I'm betting the mistake was on Travelocity's part (what they meant was that the fare went to 895 from 1268, not 268).