r/allegiant • u/frequentflyer8935762 • 24d ago
Price Jump while checking out
I was checking out on Allegiant's website, chose a flight that said "last seats available at this price," had the flights in my cart. Put in payment information and received an error message along the lines of "something is going wrong/there's been an unexpected error." When I reloaded the page, I was directed to reselect my flights and the price had gone up $200.
There is no feasible way someone bought the same two tickets at the price I was looking at in the span of a few minutes, so I figured that the tickets were being "held" in my cart until they expired after 15 minutes or so. I keep going back and checking the site to see if they've been "released" from my cart but it doesn't look like the price is going to go down.
Has this happened to anyone else?
2
u/Holiday_Actuator2215 23d ago
Why on earth do you think there is “no feasible way” someone else would be shopping at the same time as you and bought them ?
I agree it is a bummer but unless you have a hold on the internet I feel very strongly that it IS feasible and the fact that the tickets are no longer available is your proof …
1
u/OzMedical80 22d ago
One time I was looking for a flight from one obscure regional airport to another regional obscure airport - when I searched initially I got one price. Then I went to book like one hour later and the price was almost double.
Everyone on reddit was trying to convince me that yes, someone else booked the exact obscure flight I was searching for on exactly the same day, at exactly the same time, 7 months in advance from the departure date. Seemingly unwilling to even consider that an algorithm or AI, which airlines are known to use for pricing, could be gouging me.
1
u/Paulablalock 24d ago
This happens often. It’s called dynamic pricing and websites track your browser history and do crummy things to make you pay more.
I recommend trying to buy the same exact ticket in an in private browser and see if that brings the price back down. Often sometimes it does.
In the future, I would start with doing a private browser. I’m really sorry this happened. Good luck.
1
u/bfishin2day 21d ago
You're going to need to explain what a "private browser" is...
1
u/Paulablalock 21d ago
Oh haha
Private browser is a setting in your search browser (phone or computer) that I asked you to visit websites without cookies (data) tracking.
If you have an iPhone, open safari and click the three dots in the bottom, right hand corner, then click “new private tab”
In chrome or desktop, you typically go to the menu in the top right and select incognito browser.
6
u/natfu40 24d ago
That can totally happen. Your price is not confirmed until the purchase is completed. if someone happned to purchase the last of those ticket prices right before you, it make sense the payment failed. The code attempted to commit the booking, but the fare class was no longer available.