Some Guy (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jesus_jeff) wrote,@ 2008-03-31 11:13:00 |
|
Bait and Switch
I hate buying plane tickets.
This summer we're traveling out to Cape Cod to visit my folks. So we went to go buy some tickets now rather than waiting until the last minute. After a few minutes of poking around we found a pretty good fare, $267 pp round trip. We checked a few more itineraries and then decided to go back to that one.
And it's gone.
I'd understand if we were buying tickets for next week or something, and we waited overnight ... but this is 3+ months from now, and it was maybe 5 minutes later.
And now, when we go to the "best fare finder" it tells us all kinds of great fares, and when we click on it it changes to "sorry, the best fare has gone up, it is now $610" or some crap like that.
I read an essay by some guy analyzing the ticketing software for the airlines, and he found that it is insane. For a flight from San Francisco to Boston, there are something like 10 thousand different ways it can be booked (routes, fare rules, restrictions, personal favors you must do for the CEO, and so forth). Is anyone really surprised that the industry is in trouble.
I hate buying plane tickets.
This summer we're traveling out to Cape Cod to visit my folks. So we went to go buy some tickets now rather than waiting until the last minute. After a few minutes of poking around we found a pretty good fare, $267 pp round trip. We checked a few more itineraries and then decided to go back to that one.
And it's gone.
I'd understand if we were buying tickets for next week or something, and we waited overnight ... but this is 3+ months from now, and it was maybe 5 minutes later.
And now, when we go to the "best fare finder" it tells us all kinds of great fares, and when we click on it it changes to "sorry, the best fare has gone up, it is now $610" or some crap like that.
I read an essay by some guy analyzing the ticketing software for the airlines, and he found that it is insane. For a flight from San Francisco to Boston, there are something like 10 thousand different ways it can be booked (routes, fare rules, restrictions, personal favors you must do for the CEO, and so forth). Is anyone really surprised that the industry is in trouble.
