Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

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Topic Author
TacoLover
Posts: 655
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:43 am

Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by TacoLover »

Hi.

Weird thing happened buying tickets and I thought others could benefit.

I just tried buying airline tickets (major airline). Could not get it to work. Could not buy. Switched to my phone same problem. Switched to another computer and it worked. I think the problem is my main computer and phone are on a VPN and not the third computer so sometimes I can't do things on the first two and need to use the third.

The weird thing that happened though was I looked for a flight on Google Flights. I selected my flights. It wouldn't allow me to purchase when I clicked the purchase button. It kicked me to the airline website and was supposed to have selected the proper flight but it didn't work. So I clicked on to the airline website and searched for flights and ...

The flight I needed did not show up. Like it was sold out. I could get a flight a few hours earlier and a few hours later but the flight I needed did not present itself.

I went back to google flights and there it was. I went to the airline website and the flight I needed just disappeared. It wasn't there.

So for people in the future ... use Google flights not the airline website. The airline website might just not show all available flights. So weird. I still don't understand it. I repeated it several times and Google always showed it and the airline website always did not.
DoubleComma
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by DoubleComma »

Did you get the flights you wanted, those shown on Google flights?

My experience is airlines show all their flight schedule, they will routinely oversell the flights so nothing is ever “sold out”. In fact this is exactly how they manage dynamic pricing.

So I’m wondering is Google was showing a flight time/route that is no longer available? If you booked the flight this wouldn’t be true, which is why I’m asking.
pizzy
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by pizzy »

This is a very common “quirk” of airline’s .com booking engines.

You can google “google flights shows flight not available on airline website” for a myriad of posts.
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JediMisty
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by JediMisty »

I noticed this too last week! I tried a flight on Google flights and it didn't exist on the airlines w b site. I double checked it, too. Also prices were higher on the airlines web site, but couldn't book through Google flights, either.
pizzy
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by pizzy »

JediMisty wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 9:13 pm I noticed this too last week! I tried a flight on Google flights and it didn't exist on the airlines w b site. I double checked it, too. Also prices were higher on the airlines web site, but couldn't book through Google flights, either.
In case you run into this again, many times you can do a phone booking direct with Airline with the routing found on google flights.
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Topic Author
TacoLover
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by TacoLover »

DoubleComma wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 9:09 pm Did you get the flights you wanted, those shown on Google flights?

My experience is airlines show all their flight schedule, they will routinely oversell the flights so nothing is ever “sold out”. In fact this is exactly how they manage dynamic pricing.

So I’m wondering is Google was showing a flight time/route that is no longer available? If you booked the flight this wouldn’t be true, which is why I’m asking.
The flight was available. I could only access it if I search for it from Google flights. If I went to the airline, it was not listed. I booked it. It is a real flight. But when I try to book it on the airline website if I simply did not show up. It did not exist. It only existed searching through Google flights.
Topic Author
TacoLover
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by TacoLover »

pizzy wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 9:11 pm This is a very common “quirk” of airline’s .com booking engines.

You can google “google flights shows flight not available on airline website” for a myriad of posts.
I never heard of anything like that before. It seems like such a stupid thing for the airlines. They are running a flight, but you cannot access their own flight through their own website. Obviously, some sort of programming foul-up.
Topic Author
TacoLover
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by TacoLover »

pizzy wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 9:15 pm
JediMisty wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 9:13 pm I noticed this too last week! I tried a flight on Google flights and it didn't exist on the airlines w b site. I double checked it, too. Also prices were higher on the airlines web site, but couldn't book through Google flights, either.
In case you run into this again, many times you can do a phone booking direct with Airline with the routing found on google flights.
My computer would not let me book the flight. I could not figure it out. So I called the airline. The airline was able to book the flight but for a higher price than I saw on Google. It turned out that computer was on a VPN. So I found my one computer that was not aMy computer would not let me book the flight. I could not figure it out. So I called the airline. The airline was able to book the flight but for a higher price then I saw on Google. It turned out that computer it was on a VPN. So I found my one computer that was not on the VPN and booked it fine. It would’ve cost more plus The airline charged a booking fee to book it by phone. I ended up working at fine on my own computer, but with the VPN disabled.
Topic Author
TacoLover
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by TacoLover »

JediMisty wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 9:13 pm I noticed this too last week! I tried a flight on Google flights and it didn't exist on the airlines w b site. I double checked it, too. Also prices were higher on the airlines web site, but couldn't book through Google flights, either.
Weird, right? So weird!
JediMisty
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Location: Georgia

Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by JediMisty »

To follow up: I checked GoogleFlights today and found a lower fares on my fall trip. Went on AA website and found the same flight at the same price as Googleflights. When I logged into my account to re-book (AA makes you call to re-book, but hope springs eternal), I noticed that AA had changed my outgoing flight from the one I had printed out on 5/23/23. My previous flight was no longer available. The new flight was actually more convenient. Spoke to AA reservations and got re-booked at the new price for the RT already existing on my account. :moneybag
Cruise
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by Cruise »

I just checked Google Flights for a multi-city journey that they listed as business class within US and International First for the international legs (on BA.) When I clicked the link to the BA website, all of the sudden, the domestic US legs were in economy, not business. Buyer beware.
inverter
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by inverter »

Former airline employee. You likely locked up the inventory temporarily by opening the flight on so many machines.

Some airlines temporarily remove inventory for the same channel to give you an idea customer experience, similar to how ticket websites give you ten minutes to check out.
ekid
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Re: Weird incident buying airline tickets - Google Flights vs Airline Website

Post by ekid »

inverter wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 10:29 am Former airline employee. You likely locked up the inventory temporarily by opening the flight on so many machines.

Some airlines temporarily remove inventory for the same channel to give you an idea customer experience, similar to how ticket websites give you ten minutes to check out.
Explain further?
It would take me 30 minutes or an hour to choose a flight and actually buy.
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