Seat Availability: the dreaded Xed out calendar dates

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I think you missed the point! I have seen three months of light blue squares only to progressively choose one at a time and get all of them to progressively "X" out for every date in the three months. Thirty minutes later they are all blue again and start re"X"ing as you choose date after date. Why don't the just "X" out as they sell out. I think I know, do you?

by Lion Brian on Thursday, June 16, 2011

Yea, looks as if Jackal probably has it covered. But for the average guy believing Travelocity's BS fare available messages it really does not matter. I finally let my gave up on Travelocity after 3 or more "unsubscribe" messages. I don't want to begin a new career figuring out how to book their site despite the bait & switch low fare messages, I just want to spend my time on a site that will get the job done as they claim. Travelocity is a non-contender for my travel dollar.

by gcinsetn on Thursday, July 08, 2010

Now, Jackal, THAT'S an explanation! Seriously, it sounds like AFW's answer to the posted question was just some "boilerplate" like when you're trying to speak to a corporation about a customer service problem, then they reference their scripts to find the answer that best fits your question, but only based on the keywords of a question, not the actual question itself. Thank you, Jackal, for 1) finding the REAL answer and 2) explaining it so clearly. George Hobica, hire this person!

by Penella on Thursday, June 24, 2010

Jackal should be hired (if he or she is looking for a job) by aifarewatchdog. Wow, this person knows the real deal, and knows how to explain it.

by al nado on Thursday, January 28, 2010

Actually, George, what the OP wants to know probably isn't why fares sell out (a general question) but why Travelocity displays them when he seemingly can't find any seats. As a [almost] mileage-runner and low-fare enthusiast who frequents boards like FlyerTalk.com and gets email alerts of fares from half a dozen sites (including airfarewatchdog.com and farecompare.com)--in other words, pretty experienced at this game--I still find Travelocity's "Flexible Dates" feature to be one of the best ways to ferret out good fares--better than Kayak's Buzz or the other suggestions mentioned by previous commenters. Why is Travelocity better? Travelocity is displaying the raw ATPCO fares in order of lowest to highest, so if your travel dates are wildly flexible (as mine usually are--I don't care whether I travel in March or September), it's easy to see the lowest fares between a given city pair. So, why does Travelocity show you only Xes on their calendar? First, the blue travel dates are dates the fare is legally valid for (according to the fare rules). Each time Travelocity checks the GDS to see if seats are available at a given fare, it costs them money. Granted, it's a fraction of a cent, but fractions of cents add up to a major organization like Travelocity. So, instead of checking 365 days at a time (or even 30), they limit their costs by only checking five at a time (two on either side of the date you click). It's only when you click a blue date and their system looks up that and nearby dates that you (and they) find out no seats are available at that fare. While I wish they would check a broader range of dates (I agree, it gets tedious looking for seats), I understand their desire to limit costs. If anything, blame the GDSes for their high costs and expensive fees. And while some other sites show ATPCO-filed fares, too (farecompare.com does), they don't feature real-time seat availability checking, so the process of finding seats at a given fare is even more laborious than Travelocity. And other sites' flexible searches, like Orbitz and Expedia, aren't nearly as flexible as Travelocity's--you must specify a time period in which you wish to search, so if you don't care at all about dates (like me), then you need to search multiple times to cover a wide range of dates. In contrast, while Kayak's searches are fairly broad and encompassing, their fare calendars and maps are not based on ATPCO-filed fares but rather on cached results from other users. This means that if only 2 people have searched for fares from Kalispell, MT to Birmingham, AB, they're not going to display much on that routing. It gets better as you get to bigger markets where more Kayak users are searching for fares, but it's still dependent on other people searching and is therefore not as robust. While finding seats on Travelocity's flexible dates feature can be annoyingly tedious, it still remains one of the most robust and comprehensive ways to find good fares.

by jackal on Thursday, January 28, 2010

If there is a low priced fare advertised, and I click to check it out and see that it is with Travelocity, I don't even bother to check for fares. They must fix their system to remove the dates that the seats have already sold out of!!!

by TTFN Man on Thursday, January 28, 2010

Try Kayak.com. I've had good luck with it.

by StevenONE on Thursday, January 28, 2010

I agree w/ negative experience of Travelocity and drtom's comments. I tried almost the same experiement and got the same results. Unfortuantely, I had to stop trying to use Travelocity's website because I just couldn't get done what I needed to do. I may check them but I really haven't utilize their service in a long time.

by NHim on Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Agreed! Bye Bye Travelocity!

by snugs on Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I completely agree with all who have found the surprise 'x' on Travelocity annoying. If they only told us up front which dates are unavailable for the particular fare, we would not waste so much time and energy. I have a feeling that Travelocity is already losing plenty of business because of this silly functionality, and they have to wake up to the fact.

by jacksan1 on Friday, October 23, 2009

Count me in on 1) enjoying the 'x' problem on Travelocity 2) complaining to them about their policy of "bait & switch" and 3) removing Travelocity from my list of potential vendors when it comes booking travel. I too, have had much better experiences with Orbits!

by gcinsetn on Friday, October 23, 2009

The only reliable website I've found for finding actual existing low fares is Orbitz. I plug in a beginning date and an ending date for a possible trip, click on flexible travel and then choose the number of days you can be gone. Up pops a calendar with the lowest price for each day of the period you have indicated (I usually chose the beginning day of the month and 30 days later). Click on the fare you are willing to pay and it will show you which airlines offer that fare. I then go to the airlines website to purchase my ticket. It almost always works for me. Don't waste your time with travelocity.

by lowcosttraveler on Thursday, October 22, 2009

I totally agree - I've pretty much given up on Travelocity - it's too frustrating - if they'd just show what's REALLY available, I'd be happy to use it.

by flyergirl on Thursday, October 22, 2009

Travelocity is a trash site. I have tested this out. A couple of years, I checked every date listed for a particular itinerary. Every date showed the fare available, but when I clicked on the date, the fare was "no longer available". I then checked three more times, each one week apart. The same fares were still shown as being available for the same dates, but when I clicked through, every date was "no longer available". Now I never touch Travelocity.

by drtom on Thursday, October 22, 2009

I agree with the poster. I've given up and no longer use Travelocity for that reason. Its the old bait and switch. I love airfarewatchdog though. I recently booked a $214 rt from HNL to LAX and I'm goin' to Disneland!

by me too on Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I agree the Travelocity selections are a real pain. X, then another X, etc. You would think is is 1990 with the slow technology they use to reveal available dates at the advertised rate. I have given up also.

by Sha on Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I couldn't agree more with JJJ. It's a huge waste of time! I have been excited several times to see affordable fares, only to click and get an X. Click some more and get an X. On and on it goes. I don't bother any more. Life's too short. Either display what's available or forget it. The technology is definitely available in this day and age to do that. I do not considerate it to be a worthwhile or valuable tool as it currently stands.

by shabingie on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

i imagine the original poster was well aware that only a limited number of seats are set aside. His question is WHY are the dates shown available on the calendar if they aren't really when you click on it. We're all hoping that airfarewatchdog will use your considerable influence to ask Travelocity why they continue to practice this dishonest policy.

by JJJ on Saturday, May 16, 2009

I just got a quote on a great rate on Northworst Airlines and it doesn't even show up on the link! Quote is $180 from SF to Madison and the cheapest that shows up is over $400. What's the point of clicking through when you get these emails. Switch & Bait.

by Casey on Friday, May 15, 2009

And when you contact Travelocity, please don't accept a BS answer that in the nanosecond between display and click, the fare had magically been booked up for that date.

by JJJ on Saturday, May 16, 2009

I understand limited seating and the "early bird" concept. What aggravates me is having to keep plugging in dates and going back and forth to learn that no seats are available. Why doesn't the technology simply show what dates are in fact available?

by Phantom of Omaha on Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ran into the same thing when I tried to book my wife's flight on Travelocity last week using the flexible date option. Flights were all X'ed out that had been available just a little while earlier. I exited and returned but did the exact dates method and "magically" the seats were available and I booked them fine.

by calbadger on Friday, May 15, 2009

Ah, the shut out dates! I keep checking. It's odd that dates and fares suddenly become unavailable then suddenly become available. I wanted air to STT - nothing was available for my dates, then the price got out of control. Had I booked 5 months earlier, fares were $369 then got as high as $616 all with extensive layovers. I kept checking and a previously unadvertised fare - on direct flights on the exact dates I wanted - materialized. $388 while all other websites including Priceline were well into the upper $400's. Keep checking. Good fares, I found, are generally posted Tuesday mornings or after midnight on Tuesday.

by on the road on Thursday, May 14, 2009

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