Being that all publicly sold fares for plane tickets from the airline must have their price registered in advance of the sale, I agree I find it suspect in that

Being that all publicly sold fares for plane tickets from the airline must have their price registered in advance of the sale, I agree I find it suspect in that case too. Maybe sites like Priceline or similar places might do stuff like described, but I very highly doubt airlines do, unless they just don’t show availability in some fare codes to specific customers (which I also doubt, with the possible exception of elite status members).