Do the airlines change fares on weekends?
Mar 13th, 2006 | 02:59 AM
#4
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 12,885
Likes: 0
Not much more to add to <b>pat's</b> reply except this explanation.
The airline's tarrif departments are usually closed or run by a very small, emergency type crew over the weekends. So if the least expensive fares are sold out, the computers autmatically jump up to the higher fares, and since there is nobody there to monitor it, it usually seems like fares go up over the weekend, but really they don't. It's just that there is nobody there to monitor the competition and/or seat sales to adjust accordingly.
Come Monday/Tuesday the tarrif departments start to monitor the competition, any sales announcements, and also their own seat sales for particular flights/destinations. They load up new and usually lower fares to reflect their competition and or their own sales by Monday evening, early Tuesday morning. The belief that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday fares are lower is somewhat true because of the explanation above, BUT, and it's a BIG BUT, if the sales are brisk for the airline as well as for the competition, NONE of the above applies. It's not automatic that the fares will be lower during the mid-week. NO SUCH THING!
Also, one more little consideration. Many people start dreaming of vacations/quick getaways on weekends and maybe they sit in front of their computers on Sunday evening, find a cheap fare to their dream destination and put it on hold. By Monday evening they realized that it was just a dream and cancel/let go of the hold and the seats go back to inventory. If enough seats get released to a single destination then the airline may release these back to the lower fare bucket again. You may and it's only a "MAY", find some cheaper fares on Tuesday/Wednesday early mornings. Again, this is all just speculation because certain conditions have to be met.
Lately the airlines are running fairly full, so many of the above explanations may not apply to many of the popular destinations. Europe this summer, especially popular spots like Italy, France will probably not produce any significant sales. It's past that stage and now it's basically the fares that you see.
Reporting from beautiful Buenos Aires. Survived a River Plate vs Independiente football match last night.
. Today is shopping day and another wonderful steakhouse and possibly a Tango show...
The airline's tarrif departments are usually closed or run by a very small, emergency type crew over the weekends. So if the least expensive fares are sold out, the computers autmatically jump up to the higher fares, and since there is nobody there to monitor it, it usually seems like fares go up over the weekend, but really they don't. It's just that there is nobody there to monitor the competition and/or seat sales to adjust accordingly.
Come Monday/Tuesday the tarrif departments start to monitor the competition, any sales announcements, and also their own seat sales for particular flights/destinations. They load up new and usually lower fares to reflect their competition and or their own sales by Monday evening, early Tuesday morning. The belief that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday fares are lower is somewhat true because of the explanation above, BUT, and it's a BIG BUT, if the sales are brisk for the airline as well as for the competition, NONE of the above applies. It's not automatic that the fares will be lower during the mid-week. NO SUCH THING!
Also, one more little consideration. Many people start dreaming of vacations/quick getaways on weekends and maybe they sit in front of their computers on Sunday evening, find a cheap fare to their dream destination and put it on hold. By Monday evening they realized that it was just a dream and cancel/let go of the hold and the seats go back to inventory. If enough seats get released to a single destination then the airline may release these back to the lower fare bucket again. You may and it's only a "MAY", find some cheaper fares on Tuesday/Wednesday early mornings. Again, this is all just speculation because certain conditions have to be met.
Lately the airlines are running fairly full, so many of the above explanations may not apply to many of the popular destinations. Europe this summer, especially popular spots like Italy, France will probably not produce any significant sales. It's past that stage and now it's basically the fares that you see.
Reporting from beautiful Buenos Aires. Survived a River Plate vs Independiente football match last night.
. Today is shopping day and another wonderful steakhouse and possibly a Tango show...
Mar 13th, 2006 | 08:40 AM
#5
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
As a former pricer at a major US airline, I can tell you all about this one. The domestic market (which includes US to Canada flying) operates differently than the intl one, but it's much more dynamic.
Most fares (with the exception of Southwest and possibly some other low cost carriers) are filed through ATPCO, a central clearinghouse of fares and rules. Once they get filed, the fares and rules are sent out to the reservation systems, other airlines, etc for distribution. For domestic fares, there are changes 3 times daily during the week, at 10a, 1230p, and 8p eastern time. On the weekends, it only changes once a day, I think it's at 4p eastern time, but my memory is a little fuzzy on that one.
Anytime a sale was released, it would generally be matched on the very next transmission. Sales usually were launched on the 8p transmission so that the airline could have first mover advantage in the morning when nobody else would have been able to match yet. By midday, everyone would have had the chance the match.
It was rare that a sale would be released on the weekend, because then you wouldn't have first mover advantage during a busy booking time. Monday/Tuesday were the biggest booking days so that was the mostly likely time for a sale to be released.
A couple more things to note, the fares don't get into the system right away once the transmission occurs. On a really big transmission day, it can take multiple hours before you'll see it available. On a smaller day, it can be much quicker. Also, if I remember right, ATPCO is only closed three days a year - New Years, Easter, and Christmas. So yes, we even worked on Thanksgiving day to get fares filed. Things can happen almost any time.
Intl fares are different in that there are changes 5 times a day, but last I checked fares weren't valid until the next day, so it wasn't as fast paced of an environment. That could have changed by now though - it's a been a few years.
Most fares (with the exception of Southwest and possibly some other low cost carriers) are filed through ATPCO, a central clearinghouse of fares and rules. Once they get filed, the fares and rules are sent out to the reservation systems, other airlines, etc for distribution. For domestic fares, there are changes 3 times daily during the week, at 10a, 1230p, and 8p eastern time. On the weekends, it only changes once a day, I think it's at 4p eastern time, but my memory is a little fuzzy on that one.
Anytime a sale was released, it would generally be matched on the very next transmission. Sales usually were launched on the 8p transmission so that the airline could have first mover advantage in the morning when nobody else would have been able to match yet. By midday, everyone would have had the chance the match.
It was rare that a sale would be released on the weekend, because then you wouldn't have first mover advantage during a busy booking time. Monday/Tuesday were the biggest booking days so that was the mostly likely time for a sale to be released.
A couple more things to note, the fares don't get into the system right away once the transmission occurs. On a really big transmission day, it can take multiple hours before you'll see it available. On a smaller day, it can be much quicker. Also, if I remember right, ATPCO is only closed three days a year - New Years, Easter, and Christmas. So yes, we even worked on Thanksgiving day to get fares filed. Things can happen almost any time.
Intl fares are different in that there are changes 5 times a day, but last I checked fares weren't valid until the next day, so it wasn't as fast paced of an environment. That could have changed by now though - it's a been a few years.
