pofmon

I was on the continental website yesterday about 6 pm looking for a flight to mexico from charlotte. I found the flight a few days before for 771 dollars. the yesterday it was at 400 dollars. the 20 minutes went by and it changed back to the normal 771. can any one tell me why it changed. and is there any time of day when the airline has it prices cheaper like yesterday. like 6 or 7 pm.

Charlie3696

Continental sometimes does this...just have to be lucky. My friend who flies between the U.s. and Mexico frequently, has hit some of these bargains with continental.

TheShadow3346

No, they don't make the fares cheaper at specific times of the day. That's a myth that you commonly see on this website.There are two reasons why this happens. One is that airlines only offer a limit number of discount seats on any given flight. Therefore, a flight can be one price right now and much higher later. It just means that the discount seats that you wanted have sold out and you now have to buy a higher fare (or pray for cancellations or a seat sale).The other is that airlines change fares constantly depending on supply and demand. If flights are selling quickly, the airline may raise fares and/or reduce the number of discount seats. If sales are slow, the airline may reduce fares and/or increase the number of discount seats. I've seen fares for the same flight change multiple times in a single day.Predicting airfares has gotten to be like predicting the stock market. They may be higher tomorrow. They may be lower tomorrow. Who knows?The only consistent rule is that the cheapest fares often have an advance purchase requirement of 14-21 days before departure. If you wait too close to departure, your trip can get extremely expensive.