Online airfare

[Octavius]

I've never had to buy airline tickets online before and I only know of a few places (advertized in various places).  

So far I've tried Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, Priceline, and a few others.

The lowest price I've come across is about $186.00 round trip from Milwaukee to Tampa from March 14th > March 21st.  Is this a 'good buy'?  The price fluctuates every few minutes.  How do they gauge these sudden price changes?  

Any help will be greatly appreciated as I am relatively new to this

[john9001]

thats a good price , take it.

seat prices do vary alot , some seats are priced very low , others mid priced , others full fare according to a secret formula know only to airlines, they sell the cheapest seats first , then on up the price scale to the full fare seats, if there are any empty seats left close to takeoff time , they will discount them just to fill up the plane.

[Octavius]

score!  

$364.00 for 2 passengers round trip ($182 each).  I have'em reserved for now.

[Frogm4n]

why would you want to come to a craphole like tampa? for only 700bucks ive escaped tampa to hawai'i for spring break.

[Octavius]

Free place to stay?  A brother of mine just bought a home down there.  

I have other family living south of Orlando that I plan on visiting as well.  

I'll have my Corona in one hand at all times for sure... but this isn't going to be a huge 24/7 party.  I'm in it just to get away.  Besides, anything south of Illinois seems like paradise with the lovely toejam weather we have in the Midwest right now.  It's warm actually... 5 degrees F.  

[Frogm4n]

oooo rest read where you live. okay yea mexico city would look pretty to nice to you about now. you will love tampa then.(i go to school in tampa so im pretty sick of it)

[Pfunk]

Originally posted by Octavius
The price fluctuates every few minutes.  How do they gauge these sudden price changes?  
 

It's called Price Elasticity of Demand, airline tickets are inherintly elastic, this is why the price flucuates as it does.  Most recreational travelers know weeks if not months in advance of when then are going to travel.  This is why most airlines have a 14 day advance purchase.  Therfore they can charge those customers a relativley low price.  However business tickets are relatively inelastic. Meaning that it doesnt matter what price the airlines charge , businesses will pay it.  The emergency meeting in Chicago that will take place in 2 days.  Well the airline can charge $1000 round trip for a 2 day ticket and guess what business will pay because how the hell else are you going to get there from Atlanta in 2 days.  The best way to get cheap tickets is to know at a bare minimum 14 days what your travel plans are going to be.  Prices are relatively stable at this point and usually only flucuate by other airlines pricing policies.  AA drops price on RT airfare from Boston to Chicago, if no other airline follows suit, the price will go back up and sometimes higher than what it was the previous day.  In the end all the consumer can do is plan your trips in advance and check the prices daily.

[Octavius]

I understand the elasticity Pfunk.

My question was, why the change in price over a few minutes?  I did a search and found Price A for my trip.  I did the same search maybe a half hour later and found the trip would cost $50 bucks more.  

To me, it seems almost like a lottery... "Search at the right time and save 50 bucks!"

[ra]

Too bad you couldn't postpone your trip a couple weeks.  Sun 'n Fun is starting April 2nd, about 1 hour east of Tampa.

ra