I was pleased to see the following offer in today’s Smarter Travel newsletter. As you know, Smarter Travel is an Expedia site.
The offer terms stated book by July 4, for travel through August 15, between Seattle and Maui on Hawaiian Airlines.
My enthusiasm, however, waned completely after checking both Hawaiian’s website and Travelocity’s flexible date search. That fare is not available and likely has not been available for some time.
The cheapest available fare on Hawaiian I was able to find during the offer period is $338 each way, plus tax, or about $700, all-inclusive. A far fry from $436.
As I’ve mentioned before, the way airfare offers come and go so quickly, it isn’t possible to put together a newsletter, with all the time that takes, and expect the deals to still be there by the time it is published. Apparently that is true, even for mega-travel conglomerate Expedia.
Josh Roberts (3 years ago)
Jeff, you make some fair points, and the issue of availability is one we at SmarterTravel wrestle with on an ongoing basis. Airfares are volatile and constantly changing based on load factors, demand, amount of time remaining before a flight, etc.
I’d like to offer one clarification, however. You write that “it isn’t possible to put together a newsletter, with all the time that takes, and expect the deals to still be there by the time it is published.”
In the case of SmarterTravel’s newsletters, these fares *are* still valid and available when we press the “send” button. We do check them. What happens, I think — particularly in cases like this where the fare is a very good one with limited availability — is that people snap them up quickly, whether because they’ve seen it in our newsletter or because they’ve found it independently — and thus within a short period of time, that seat at that price disappears.
It’s a tough situation to manage. On the one hand, we want to notify our subscribers of these great deals. On the other hand, by notifying people we’re actually hastening the decline in availability.
Moral of the story, at least from my point of view: If you see a price you like, act quickly and hope no one else has found it first. As you’ve just demonstrated, it’s not perfect — but that low-priced seat ultimately goes to someone, and the odds of it being you are greatly increased if you’re one of the first to learn about it through our newsletters.
Best regards,
Josh Roberts
Managing Editor
SmarterTravel.com
Jeff (3 years ago)
Hi Josh,
Thanks for taking the time and your well thought out comment. I believe that Expedia does indeed try to show only valid offers. We all understand the appurtenant difficulties, given the changed nature of airfare deals.
I wonder what method you used to check the availability of that offer. Immediately after I received the email, I checked both Hawaiian’s site and Travelocity. While Travelocity still showed that fare as available, Hawaiian did not. Once I’d pursued all possible dates on Travelocity to no avail, it removed the fare entirely.
Best, Jeff