Assume each airline different, but they clearly track each others’ prices, and certain market dynamics/forces/availability levels seem to cause the algorithms to get derailed into nonsense land. Ex: I am looking at flight from between two cities 1000km apart. a month from now i see $159 dollar flights. looks like average in the 200s. this week, two airlines both show options tuesday and thursday. Airline A, tues nonstop economy: $1500 (lol), B $1300. thursday A: $670, B: $590.There is just no way anyone is buying for 1500 right? are there people out there (that can’t afford private) but hate money so much they are spending 1500 on a one hour flight? or do runaway algorithms actually cost airlines sometimes?
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I used to travel a lot as a consultant… I probably flew 2-3 times per week for a few years.
There are certain destinations from my home city that’s maybe 99% filled with business travelers on certain days (e.g., Sunday and Thursday evenings).
The tickets are normally like $350 round-trip but on those days they’re always like $1800+.
Often business travelers must fly on certain days of the week, and many companies mandate buying “fully refundable” tickets due to frequent schedule changes. Airlines know this and price their tickets according to the demand.
Price doesn’t matter so much for businesses because the costs get passed on to clients and/or budgeted as a business expense for tax purposes.
This practice is called [Yield Management](https://drifttravel.com/understanding-airline-yield-management-getting-deal/) and airlines have some very sophisticated algorithms to maximize their revenue per seat.
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