4

When I search for a flight on google.com/flights, I find a great price, and I am given options to book the flight on several different sites.

One of the options is orbitz.com.

Now, when I go and search for that same flight (dates/times/etc) on orbitz.com, the flight doesn't show up. It shows other options that are far more expensive.

I missing something?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    Perhaps the fare you had first found comes with city-of-sale restrictions?
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 19:42
  • 3
    Google flights uses cached data, perhaps the flight/fare that you are looking for is already sold out.
    – edocetirwi
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 19:46
  • Wouldn't the booking site show that there are no seats left during the booking process though? I've seen other sites do this, but I'm not familiar with Orbitz.
    – TravelLikeBeaker
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 19:58

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

This happens a lot. What happens is sometimes the flight aggregators like google and kayak do not have updated prices and inventory amounts. The reason is that these sites are aggregators that either scrape or get a delayed feed.

Meanwhile, sites like Orbitz are GDS's or have direct relationships with GDS's, enabling them to directly manage the inventory and price management of global flights for multiple airlines.

Because of this, especially for very popular flights during busy times, you may end up seeing different prices for flights between aggregators and the travel agencies (i.e. expedia, orbitz, etc.).

Improve this answer
1
  • That makes sense, I wonder if google flights will get direct flight information eventually. Thanks for the answer.
    – TravelLikeBeaker
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 14:16

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .