When an non-refuntable airline ticket is booked on many web sites, I think the ticket must be paid for within 24 hours or it's automatically cancelled.
If the price went down or didn't increast "too much" in that 24 hour period, would it be possible to have a daily routine that included booking another ticket on a different web site, different credit card (both cards issued to Robert Smith)?
So to play this out, let's say the price of the ticket is $1,500 and it's a few months from the departure date. This itinerary has, in the past, gone down to the $1,000 range, and you want to go for the low price. So on day 1, I reserve the ticket on site "A" for $1,500. on day 2, the price goes to 1,450 and I reserve the ticket on site "B", letting the first ticket expire, unpaid. Of course this would have to continue every single day, and there could be a situation where the price goes up. The purchase might be made when the flight goes on sale to $995 and the next day pops-up significantly to $1100 when the sale ends.
Admittedly, that's a lot of effort, but I just wonder what would stop someone from doing that.