Do Flight Ticket Prices Increase on Weekends?

Hi everyone,

I've been looking at one way ticket to Korea from Melbourne sometime next month (via AirAsia).

Most one way ticket prices from February to May were around $249 (promotion price) until yesterday (I was monitoring the price all week), but I checked the price again this morning and they've all been jacked up to $493!

I was just wondering if it's common for airlines to jack up their ticket prices on weekends and reduce them back to their original price (or somewhat higher than the week before) again at the start of the week?

Comments

  • +1

    Why one way ?

    Try incognito mode or a different browser. Also, think about going to Busan instead of ICN.

    Oh, and pull the trigger once you see a good price.

    • Try incognito mode or a different browser.

      This. The search engines have gotten very smart & sneaky nowadays…you will be shocked by the differences you find in the same search using incognito mode. :/

      Also, think about going to Busan…

      Be wary of taking the train though…I hear it's riddled with zombies! ;)

      • you will be shocked by the differences you find in the same search using incognito mode.

        I think you'll find that its illegal in most jurisdictions for a company to charge you more for an identical product, based on some browsing profile they've built up … easily gets into the territory of breaching consumer law, as well as anti-discrimination law.

        Instead companies do more sneaky things like changing the ordering of the search results, so the cheaper results are suppressed, unless you really look for them.

        Incidentally, google's monopoly on search presents a similar issue - they way they rank search results can be highly subjective. I'm pretty sure they skew rankings based on their own political agenda, be that driver less cars, civilian drones or hillary clinton.

        • I think you'll find that its illegal in most jurisdictions…

          It still happens though, just try it & see for yourself.

        • @StewBalls:

          It still happens though, just try it & see for yourself.

          I have … it always comes down to ordering of search results … I'm still to find a case where an identical product is more expensive, based on the user's profile.

          For airfares, they'll do things like show you a more expensive booking class or include optional extras in the fare. For hotels, they'll show you a room on a higher floor or with a better view.

          Apart from possibly breaching consumer law/anti discrimination laws - it's just bad business practice to have different prices on different sales channels. Think about it, they jack up the price on the website … customer goes to physical travel agent or another website, buys the same airfare for the regular price. Airline misses out on direct sale and is stuck paying commission to an agent.

          I'm all about conspiracy theories and as much as I'd love to believe this one, there's just too many holes in it.

  • Most likely, as alluded to above, they've tracked your browsing through your 'cookies' and realised you're a return shopper who is more likely to accept w higher price.

    Could be a bunch of things, though.

  • $249 to KL alone would have been a good deal. You sure you weren't looking at KUL-ICN? If not I'd say you've missed out.

    • It was MEL - KUL - ICN. The promotion is supposed to run till 22nd January so I was going to buy it today. So much regrets

  • Hey guys,

    1. Getting one way ticket as I'm going to Korea, then Japan then catch a one way flight from Japan to Melbourne (which was also $189 yesterday, now $400~)

    2. I've cleared cookies, tried incognito, VPN, still the same price :(

  • +2

    nothing to do with being a weekend. Cheaper seats sold out.

    • +1

      There's nothing stopping the airline from releasing more cheap seats in the future or having other 'sales', but it's generally accepted that flights become more expensive closer to departure.

      • True. I have a friend in the industry who tells me that they do not discount close to flights. I thought that they might discount to get bums into empty seats, but I was wrong.

  • +1

    I've seen flights and hotels more expensive after repeatetive clicks, and safari browser more expensive

    Maybe a few people bought some flights and that made them go up

    • +1

      safari browser more expensive

      Apple tax?

  • keep looking…the bargins are there but flexibilty is the key

  • All good guys. They've dropped the price down to $249 again on Monday morning :)

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