Class Availability Mystery

[JohnK]

I had been looking at booking BA WT+ for BKK-SYD on 23 December and all was OK until I went to book it yesterday morning. No availability. So I was resigned to the fact that I will have to leave on 24 December and as this had W9 T9 availability I was going to wait a few days.

I am browsing the BA site again last night and notice that there is again a WT+ seat available but at the higher price which meant that the availability now was W1 T0. I was in 2 minds to book it right away but thought I would wait. I was pricing different dates, browsing class availability, returning to price the date I wanted again, browsing class availability. Anyway this went on for an hour or so.

I had a break and then started browsing class availability again and notice that all of a sudden it was now W1 T1. So I quickly get on to the BA website and book 23 December at the lower price. After my booking vailability returned to W0 T0 and has remained that way since.

It is all a mystery how availability works. Did my searching for airfares last night influence the T1 all of a sudden becoming available? Or do they occassionally just release an extra seat, possibly oversold, and play around with the availability until someone purchases it? How can one explain availability going from W0 T0 to W1 T0 and then to W1 T1!

[serfty]

Yield Management Voodoo!

I am of a mind that some YM functions are automatic/computerised - with regular sweeps by software that use algorithms to analyse current circumstance and history making defined adjustments as long as the situation is within parameters considered normal. Anything falling outside those parameters gets referred for manual processing.

In your case, the flight may already be back to W1 T1.

On Tuesday morning I booked a QF flight later that afternoon for an associate , it was showing J0 D0 Y1 B1 H1 K1 M1 R1 L1 V1 S1 N0 Q0 O0 X0 E0 before booking and all 0's after.

i.e. Qantas were looking for almost any revenue booking for that 'last' seat.

[moa999]

The mysteries of yield management
- might be a cancellation, might be software saying you are below target x days out, might be the sunspots

I would definitely say though that searching for fares does not cause seats to be released.

[JohnK]

In your case, the flight may already be back to W1 T1.

It is still W0 T0. But it is interesting that the day before which has been sold out for many weeks is now showing T availability. I guess cancellations could be the real reason and the airline prepared to accept the lower class airfare.

I will just consider myself lucky that I have saved around $180 or an extra nights accommodation and I can be home before Christmas rather than travelling on Christmas morning.

I would definitely say though that searching for fares does not cause seats to be released.

I was just clutching at straws and looking for totally illogical explanations.

[oz_mark]

Having seen these goings on, it is pretty much impossible to double guess the YM gods. There is all sorts of voodoo going on with that.

[markis10]

You did well to book last night given the rise in Fuel taxes effective today on BA Aussies face higher airfares | NEWS.com.au

[chrisb]

On Tuesday morning I booked a QF flight later that afternoon for an associate , it was showing J0 D0 Y1 B1 H1 K1 M1 R1 L1 V1 S1 N0 Q0 O0 X0 E0 before booking and all 0's after.
i.e. Qantas were looking for almost any revenue booking for that 'last' seat.

Couldn't that be caused by someone cancelling, upgrading or changing an S booking, thus releasing an S seat, which also translates to all higher booking classes being available?

Chrisb.

[serfty]

No reason why not; again this process appeared to be automatic.

I have redeemed an award flight and seen Q, N, O availability each decrease by one along with X.

[oz_mark]

No reason why not; again this process appeared to be automatic.

I have redeemed an award flight and seen Q, N, O availability each decrease by one along with X.

It would make sense that there are a set of automated rules on this. Otherwise they would need an army to be constalty reviewing what was going on.

[simongr]

The rules probably are automated so that once a seat is "sold" inventory changes - hence what serfty is seeing. However there would probably be periodic reviews by humans based on another set of rules based on automated reports of the current loads etc.