In a matter of seconds, the ticket price went up $50
Posted on December 29th, 2008 – 9:28 AMBy James Shiffer
In case you missed it, here’s my Sunday Whistleblower column, which described one Northwest Airlines customer’s frustration with an online ticket deal at nwa.com that got distinctively less enticing as he clicked through.
5 Responses to “In a matter of seconds, the ticket price went up $50”
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December 29th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
What? You mean supply and demand can influence pricing in public business?
WOW!!!!!
December 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am
That has been happening since the beginning of airline tickets.
It’s all based on availability. No new news here.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:31 am
You will see more and more industries using software
to set prices in real time. Some property management
companies are also changing monthly rental rates daily
depending on vacancy rates. Don’t forget, the price can
decrease, too, which is beneficial for the consumer.
Overall, the end result is simply a more efficient
allocation of the resource in question. Think E-Bay.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I have to agree with the guy who complained rather than the smart-aleck commenters. I have no issue with supply-and-demand pricing. However, I strongly suspect that the airline never had any intent of selling him the ticket at the lower price; it simply said there was a ticket available at the lower price to get him to click, and then claimed that someone else had snagged the lower seat while he was clicking and demanded $50. I’ve had that happen to me several times: I’ll close the browser, re-open and search for the same tickets. I’ll once again be offered the cheap price that they had just claimed was sold out…until, of course, I start to buy, at which point the price magically goes up again. Doesn’t that fit the definition of “bait-and-switch” advertising?
January 6th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Yeah, this happens ALL the time. Why do they consider
this news?