"Wee Hours, Wee Prices" article: comments?
 

Howdy All,

A friend asked me about a blurb from Peter Greenberg's "Travel Detective" column in the Jan-Feb 2004 "Men's Health" magazine. Specifically, it was entitled "Wee Hours, Wee Prices", and it declared Tuesday at midnight to be the best time to buy airline tickets. According to Peter, the airlines release their best deals late Friday, so if you wait till the offers expire (Tuesday at midnight, presumably), "unpurchased fares flood back into the airline computer system". He says that the hour from midnight to 1am (in the airline's base city) is when you can find these bargains.

I do a lot of trolling for airfare bargains, and I have to admit I haven't the faintest idea what Peter's talking about. I've never noticed the airlines publishing bargains at any particular time (though the e-deals usually come out on Wednesdays, don't they?). And these fares usually can't be reserved without payment for more than 24 hours, so even if they *do* come out on Friday, those "unpurchased" reservations would be freed up on Saturday night, not Tuesday.

I admit I've occasionally noticed that availability in certain fare categories tends to increase slightly around midnight "airline time" - if the flights I'm interested in don't have availability in my desired booking code, I'll check back late at night in the hope that someone let an unpurchased reservation expire. But a "flood" of bargains? Never seen it.

Am I missing something here?

I don't get this either. If these "best deals" remain unpurchased, maybe they weren't such great deals to begin with. And who's to say that when these deals "flood back into the airline computer" they'll still be listed as "deals"? Maybe they revert back to a standard fare. Maybe someone with a little more insight can help us out...?

I'm totally guessing here, but perhaps what he is saying is that Friday is the day on which airlines increase fares. (Again, I don't know this to be true; I'm just guessing.) If an increase doesn't "stick" (i.e., other airlines don't match), perhaps the inventory reverts to its lower price levels as of midnight on Tuesday.

Bingo.