United pricing changes hourly
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Miami, FL
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United pricing changes hourly
Just thought I'd share my story booking on United over the past 15 hours.
6pm last night:
--> Booked Miami to Newark nonstop for $259 one way for a flight departing in 10 days.
--> At 11:30pm I thought better of it and decided to drive up to Ft Lauderdale and rebooked at $184 one way. Even with the extra $25 in Uber costs, I'd still save $50.
--> Cancelled first flight from Miami since I was still within 24 hour period.
--> At 7am woke up and decided not to waste my time going to Ft Lauderdale, so I went online to cancel that flight and rebook the Miami flight. The new Miami flight price was now $159 one way. A $100 savings in just 16 hours. Huh?!
No harm, no foul for me since I was able to cancel the first two flights. But I have to say, this sort of crazy pricing is disconcerting. Who moves prices ~40% in less than 16 hours?!?! Really makes you want to use Google Flights or Hoppers price tracker although I've had very poor results with them both.
How can you trust you're getting a fair price when United moves prices like this in such short periods of time?
6pm last night:
--> Booked Miami to Newark nonstop for $259 one way for a flight departing in 10 days.
--> At 11:30pm I thought better of it and decided to drive up to Ft Lauderdale and rebooked at $184 one way. Even with the extra $25 in Uber costs, I'd still save $50.
--> Cancelled first flight from Miami since I was still within 24 hour period.
--> At 7am woke up and decided not to waste my time going to Ft Lauderdale, so I went online to cancel that flight and rebook the Miami flight. The new Miami flight price was now $159 one way. A $100 savings in just 16 hours. Huh?!
No harm, no foul for me since I was able to cancel the first two flights. But I have to say, this sort of crazy pricing is disconcerting. Who moves prices ~40% in less than 16 hours?!?! Really makes you want to use Google Flights or Hoppers price tracker although I've had very poor results with them both.
How can you trust you're getting a fair price when United moves prices like this in such short periods of time?
#2
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,370
No harm, no foul for me since I was able to cancel the first two flights. But I have to say, this sort of crazy pricing is disconcerting. Who moves prices ~40% in less than 16 hours?!?! Really makes you want to use Google Flights or Hoppers price tracker although I've had very poor results with them both.
How can you trust you're getting a fair price when United moves prices like this in such short periods of time?
How can you trust you're getting a fair price when United moves prices like this in such short periods of time?
Your question about a "fair price" is a loaded one. All of those prices were fair; they were offered to all customers at the same time. You can get the best price by doing exactly what you did -- check often to see what the new price is.
UA has a policy where they will offer you a partial refund if the price drops by more than $100 within 30 days of your purchase (they deduct a $50 administrative fee and refund the rest). So, you have some protection.
#3
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This is SOP for the airline industry -- all airlines work in substantially the same manner. What you're seeing is the affect of inventory adjustments that run regularly (and more frequently as the flight approaches). They may have had some other passenger cancel on the Miami flight, for example, making their inventory model flip over to offering a discount. Or, they may have been anticipating another booking or two, and they didn't happen, so they lowered the price to sweeten the deal.
Your question about a "fair price" is a loaded one. All of those prices were fair; they were offered to all customers at the same time. You can get the best price by doing exactly what you did -- check often to see what the new price is.
UA has a policy where they will offer you a partial refund if the price drops by more than $100 within 30 days of your purchase (they deduct a $50 administrative fee and refund the rest). So, you have some protection.
Your question about a "fair price" is a loaded one. All of those prices were fair; they were offered to all customers at the same time. You can get the best price by doing exactly what you did -- check often to see what the new price is.
UA has a policy where they will offer you a partial refund if the price drops by more than $100 within 30 days of your purchase (they deduct a $50 administrative fee and refund the rest). So, you have some protection.
#4
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The inventory management system has fairly coarse knobs to use, but your 40% number is more a function of the fact that UA is selling a lot of discounted inventory on that route than anything else. The full fare for MIA-EWR is about $1400, so the price drop was less than 10% of that.
Rather it is clearly SOP for airlines, but it leaves customers frustrated. Should I book now? How about in 5 minutes? Maybe tomorrow night? They are playing games with their inventory and trying to milk money out of us. I prefer Southwest pricing which is more straightforward and changes less often. And at least when it does, you get that money back (assuming you check often). This sort of dynamic pricing leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Clearly UA was just playing games last night or the pricing manager is inept.
Airlines face a fundamental problem: in order to survive, they need to be able to practice (legal) price discrimination. I've seen it written that there is no single price point where it is possible to make money on a flight: if they priced airfare on a cost-plus basis, they couldn't fill the seats. If they price the seats at a point where they can sell them all, they can't cover their costs. Clearly, something has to give.
It's not really much different from any other consumer good. If you're going to get frustrated because you bought a pair of shoes for $150 and then the next week you see them on sale for $100, you're going to spend a lot of your life upset about things that you can't really control.
#5
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It's not really much different from any other consumer good. If you're going to get frustrated because you bought a pair of shoes for $150 and then the next week you see them on sale for $100, you're going to spend a lot of your life upset about things that you can't really control.
As for Southwest, I have seen it - but since they offer no change/cancel fees - you can get the difference back (or rebook without penalty).
#6
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That is the pricing problem retailers are having with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and XMAS sales. The airlines are just further ahead in the pricing sophistication game.
Your game is to get the cheapest price and the airlines game to extract the highest possible average fare. It is unrealistic to expect them to make it easy to get the lowest fare.
I have seen similar issues with WN and have longed learned WN prices can regularly be more expensive than other airlines. If you want simpler, is more expensive better?
#7
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I cannot comment on OP’s specific case, but I would not conclude it is “poor inventory” management based on one single case.
I would, however, offer one data point for reference.
I often fly between South Florida and New York for the past 25 years almost exclusively on PMUA, PMCO and now the combined UA.
I have observed certain fare fluctuations as described by the OP, but it has more to do with travel agents and cruise lines blocking cheap seats on moments of notice and then release them when bookings were not finalized. This is quite common for FLL and MIA due to large cruise line industry and tour group travel consolidators that work with the airlines. Southwest/Spirit work a bit differently than the Big 3 airlines.
My family was in hotel/tourist business in South Florida until my parents retired. Our hotel room pricing was also subject to fluctuation when travel agents and cruise lines made advanced blockings and later released them when customers failed to confirm the trips by deadlines.
This is is quite common for flights to/from tourist destinations particularly when cruises are involved when air/hotel/cruise are sold as a package by the cruise companies or travel consolidators.
This is just one data point for reference.
I would, however, offer one data point for reference.
I often fly between South Florida and New York for the past 25 years almost exclusively on PMUA, PMCO and now the combined UA.
I have observed certain fare fluctuations as described by the OP, but it has more to do with travel agents and cruise lines blocking cheap seats on moments of notice and then release them when bookings were not finalized. This is quite common for FLL and MIA due to large cruise line industry and tour group travel consolidators that work with the airlines. Southwest/Spirit work a bit differently than the Big 3 airlines.
My family was in hotel/tourist business in South Florida until my parents retired. Our hotel room pricing was also subject to fluctuation when travel agents and cruise lines made advanced blockings and later released them when customers failed to confirm the trips by deadlines.
This is is quite common for flights to/from tourist destinations particularly when cruises are involved when air/hotel/cruise are sold as a package by the cruise companies or travel consolidators.
This is just one data point for reference.
#8
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#9
Join Date: May 2010
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I am confused why you keep saying this bad inventory management. Inventory is managed to maximize profit. We have no idea what numbers UA had to justify those changes, but I am sure they had more than you had as one customer trying to buy one cheap ticket.
#11
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UA does all kinds of things with fares and inventory that don't make sense to me.
But when they open cheaper inventory closer to departure, it's a pretty fair bet they've done it because their models say that's what they should do to maximize revenue. As others have noted, UA has vast troves of data to support that conclusion.
But when they open cheaper inventory closer to departure, it's a pretty fair bet they've done it because their models say that's what they should do to maximize revenue. As others have noted, UA has vast troves of data to support that conclusion.
#12
Join Date: May 2001
Location: IAD
Posts: 6,146
It’s not just MIA-EWR inventory and prices to consider. It’s MIA to ~100 different markets via EWR that are being considered.
An adjustment in the inventory MIA-EWR may be due to a change in anticipated demand MIA-elsewhere.
If this level of dynamic pricing leaves a bad taste in your mouth I would advise you to consider retiring from flying soon as it is only going to get more and more dynamic.
An adjustment in the inventory MIA-EWR may be due to a change in anticipated demand MIA-elsewhere.
If this level of dynamic pricing leaves a bad taste in your mouth I would advise you to consider retiring from flying soon as it is only going to get more and more dynamic.
#13
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Normal. I regularly see price adjustments from Friday to Saturday on leisure routes. Check again Sunday or Monday and it will likely be higher. No formula to it just when people buy.
#14
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I hear your point. But the revenue manager moved prices 40% in less than 16 hours. You're saying he was expecting a booking or two last night? Or that a slew of cancellations occurred last night? I find both of these highly unlikely. Rather it is clearly SOP for airlines, but it leaves customers frustrated. Should I book now? How about in 5 minutes? Maybe tomorrow night? They are playing games with their inventory and trying to milk money out of us. I prefer Southwest pricing which is more straightforward and changes less often. And at least when it does, you get that money back (assuming you check often). This sort of dynamic pricing leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Clearly UA was just playing games last night or the pricing manager is inept.
Dynamic pricing is merely an algorithm trying to balance supply with demand and charge accordingly. There is nothing malevolent in these price changes.
#15
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It's not like they moved fares globally on all routes 40% in a few hours. The lowest available fare for a specific set of markets/dates can and does vary all the time, or can stay they same for weeks.