I usually use google flights to search for and track prices, but it has been acting strangely the last few weeks. I search for a flight, select each leg which has a price displayed for the flight, and then on the last page where it shows you which website you can go to book on, I get a message that says "unfortunately the price for this flight has changed," and the price is showing several hundred dollars more. It is not limited to one company, I have had the same experience with Delta, American, BA and Lufthansa flights. Very odd, as I've used that search engine for years with no trouble, but it is not at all useful right now. Anyone else having trouble with it?
Posted by
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3226 posts
Hi Tamara, what web browser are you using? The reason I ask is because we use Chrome and on my kids school website to purchase things it started doing funky things all of a sudden. No issues with anything else. I am not a tech person, but my husband said to use a different web browser. Try that.
Posted by
OP
Florida
610 posts
That's a good point, Tammy, I should have thought of that. I am using Chrome and haven't had trouble with anything else. I'll try it on a different browser when I have a chance. Thanks!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
No evident trouble here.
Posted by
Washington DC
27111 posts
My understanding is the same as Wally's, but I'm not sure it works that way, because I've never seen a noticeable change in fares after going directly to the airline's website. Then again, I don't buy that many plane tickets.
Posted by
Massachusetts
847 posts
The same is happening so frequently on Kayak that it's pretty useless. It used to be my go to site but now all it's useful for is seeing which airlines fly certain routes. It does the exact same thing you describe on google flights. BUT - this isn't even limited to those search sites.
Yesterday I found a flight on Air France (and code share return on KLM) for $540. This was not only what it said on Kayak, but when I went to the Air France site (not through Kayak) I found the same price. Great. I start booking it and in the middle of the process (before you get to the seat reservation page) it jumped over $200. I closed out and went in again, same thing. I've never had that happen before once on any airline's site but for a year or more I've found whatever the search engines seems to find is never 'available' once you go to actually book it.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
It seems like live fare info (from the airline's own reservation system) isn't getting refreshed fast enough on a third site (Google Flights) to be accurate. Maybe a coding solution is needed to increase the refresh rare, although I'm sure that could have it's downsides as well.
Posted by
OP
Florida
610 posts
Thank you all for your ideas. It seems there could be a number of reasons for the inconsistencies in pricing. I'll just need to keep comparing multiple sites for pricing.