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Good overview. Having worked at a GDS subsidiary and written about this topic, another thing to add is it depends on how many caches there are between you and t
by coldcode 12y ago
Good overview. Having worked at a GDS subsidiary and written about this topic, another thing to add is it depends on how many caches there are between you and the root database. Airfares are heavily cached so the data that is shown in search results is often stale; only the final booking (when you actually pay) is the real number. The more contention for seats as you get to the last few the more likely the final price can jump. For example, Google's flight data is very stale since they don't do any booking, they don't really have to update all that frequently, which means they can return results from their own cache fast.
- giarc 12y agoGreat explanation, however why do I never see "Your fare has increased $55" on sites like Expedia but sites like CheapAir.com have it all the time. I expect Expedia and CheapAir.com have the same source of data therefore it does seem like a bait and switch situation.
- coldcode 12y agoExpedia may decide to eat the difference (it can go up and down) and other folks may not be able to afford this (remember that airlines only give like $10 per ticket, not much margin).