Expedia Question
 

Hi, I have little experience with Expedia and hope that someone can answer my question. A friend and I are flying from Poland to France this summer, and we found an amazing fare on Expedia. My friend purchased her ticket first, and the fare immediately disappeared and was replaced by one nearly five times greater.

I realize that no one can say for sure whether or not a better fare will reappear at a later date; however, if anyone knows from past experience that the super-bargain fare is almost certain not to make another appearance, I will just bite the bullet and buy the ticket now. Our being on two separate flights will be very inconvenient if the seats should sell out while I'm pondering the issue.

Any input will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks.

Once I found a fare that astronomically cheap I jumped up went to get my cc and it was gone when I came back. It may have been a keying error at the site or it may have been the end of a really good sale.

All I know is I start checking airfares, get an idea of what they will run on a non sale, think about how much I'd want to pay vs how much I will pay and when I hit that I buy. Then never, ever, ever check again for that same flight.

It may have been the reason someone wrote this:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...sold-paint.cfm

I'd recommend you check on www.kayak.com before you buy.

It's likely that your friend's fare was a mistake that was quickly rectified or the airline was offering only had a few fares at that price.

On Kayak you can check trends and see the highest/lowest prices for flights on particular dates.

Airlines will often offer one or two very cheap fares so that the fare shows up first on the search engine. It is there primarily for marketing purposes. Whether it will ever return is anyone's guess. And it could return but it could be so quick that you might miss it. The fare pricing is a huge game that is played without our full knowledge of the rules so we most often lose.

I am convinced that a few fares I've gotten over the years were errors, because I shop diligently and have seen them appear and vanish in the time it takes to think about it or fill in the information. So, I've learned to be ready to pounce and I have my credit card number copied and ready to paste, after being careful to double check the dates.

I've also learned (when shopping for my husband and myself) to always change to 2 people, rather than let it default to one, because a fare may change dramatically when you modify the search.

Once, when a fare jumped $100 with a consolidator after only a few minutes, I phoned, and they were able to book the first fare I saw. So, you might try calling...

I wouldn't usually think of buying on Expedia for a fare from Poland to France, so maybe someone could make better comments if you explained what airline this is and what fares you are talking about (prices), it's hard to say in a vacuum of both those bits of information.
It very well could be that there was only one fare at that rate and they are all now sold out at that level.

If the fare is on LOT or Airberlin or CSA, for example, you can easily check their own websites to see.