Have you ever stumbled across an amazing deal for a business-class flight and thought you’d wait one more day before booking it? Come back the next day and boom – price went up or worse, vanished entirely. Fast forward weeks or months later and you find yourself staring at that same price… or maybe tomorrow.

You’re not crazy. Neither are you inherently just lucky (or unlucky) when you see these prices.

Deal prices “magically” disappearing (especially for business class seats) and returning is something that actually happens routinely. Airlines have a method to their pricing madness, and it’s all about how they do business, not trying to trick you.

In this article, we’re going to dig into why business-class deals will sometimes disappear off the screen, only to reappear a few days or weeks later at the same price (or close to it) you originally found. We’ll explain everything in detail, but with the focus on practical information that will help you actually book flights for less.

The Simplest Explanation: Airlines Don’t Price Seats the Same Way Every Day

As you may know by now, airlines use what is called dynamic pricing. Translation: one particular fare can change several times in a single day.

It makes adjustments based on a number of factors, but demand is a huge driver:

When we say demand, airlines are looking at more than just how many tickets are sold. They look at how many people are viewing the page, how quickly those seats are selling compared to other flights on that route.

Demand can also include things like how competitive prices are for that route.

They’re also plugged into algorithms that crunch historical data, as well as anticipated demand for the flight.

Remember, airlines aren’t trying to mess with you when they price flights this way. They do it as a strategy to sell every seat and make as much revenue as possible. What could be a $4,000 flight in business class one day could be $3,600 the next, then $5,200, then something entirely different in the course of a few weeks.

Fare Buckets: How They Work, and What They Are

On an airline’s system, not all seats available for sale are priced the same. Behind the scenes airlines organize seats into fare buckets, or pricing categories.

When one bucket sells out, the next bucket up becomes the new lowest priced option.

Scenario: Let’s break down what normally happens here.

• When a flight first opens for booking, there may only be a handful of seats available at that sweet low-business-class price;

• If they sell rapidly, then the pricing system escalates to the next fare bucket and increases the prices;

• A few days later, demand could slow and the airline decides to make more seats available at that cheap price.

That same airline could also lower prices into a lower bucket of seats.

Business class seats are usually more prone to these changes because there are less seats than economy so additions/subtractions to each bucket are more noticeable.

Demand and Supply: How the Basics of Why Prices Move 

Simply put, flight pricing is a basic demand and supply proposition.

Let’s break that down into plain English:

• If more people want to buy a flight, the price goes up;

• If fewer people are buying, prices may drop to entice more buyers

• The more seats an airline has available, the more chances it has to offer deals;

• When there are fewer seats available, each one is more expensive to ensure the airline can maximize the revenue from that flight.

Search demand can change for any number of reasons: a corporate block of tickets cancel, a competitor airline decides to go on sale, or even how many people are searching for flights could impact demand. When demand changes, prices will react.

Flash Sales and Promotions Aren’t Realities but Limited-Time Offers

Every once in a while an airline will run a promotion fare or flash sale that will only offer a certain number of seats at a discounted price for a limited amount of time. These are legitimate deals, but keep in mind that:

• They will only be available for a certain number of hours/days;

• Only a limited number of seats will be available at those prices;

• They are designed to fill seats that would otherwise not sell.

Once those seats are gone, that price will go away. However, if demand for the flight decreases or the airline decides it needs to move more tickets, you could very well see that same deal pop up down the road at a similar price (if not the exact same price).

Airline Pricing Algorithms Change Prices All the Time

Prices don’t sit around waiting until Friday at 5PM for the manager to say “yes” or “no” when it comes to changing prices. Airline pricing systems are constantly analyzing:

• How quickly certain seats are selling;

• Where their prices sit compared to competitors;

• Seasonal trends and/or yearly trends;

• How far in the future the flight is.

They could pop up at 7AM or 3AM or Noon. Prices can disappear just as quickly as they come online. If a deal disappears in a matter of hours or days, it could very well just be the pricing algorithm moving on as demand or seat availability changes

Error Fares Appear Sometimes, Too

Not every price that disappears and comes back is an intentional pricing strategy by an airline.

Sometimes prices are put up accidentally by airlines or the booking system. These are called error fares. They can be drastically lower than normal and sometimes only stay posted for a few minutes before the airline catches it and yanks it.

In these scenarios, you might see a price:

• Suddenly plummet to an unrealistically low price;

• Completely disappear;

• Reappear a few minutes or hours later at the same price (or similar).

Because these aren’t tied to a normal pricing strategy, these are impossible to predict. They also don’t last long and don’t happen very often. When they do happen, you better book that flight ASAP.

You Can’t Time It for Discounted Flights to Pop Up

One question we often get from beginner business travelers is: When is the best time to find these prices?

Short answer: there is no best time.

Every airline’s pricing system is out there changing at all times independently of each other. There will never be a magical hour or day when all of the airlines recalculate their fares at once and your dream price pops onto the screen.

Picking one day to “search” is probably wasting your time. Instead, set up price alerts and search regularly. With price alerts, you get notified the instant a fare drops to your target price, rather than trying to guess Tuesday at 3PM will be the magic moment.

How to Watch for and Take Advantage of Pricing Patterns

Now that you understand prices will go up and down, it’s also important to understand what you should do about it.

Let’s walk through how a professional would think about this…

1. Set Price Alerts for Popular Business-Class Routes You Want to Travel

If you know you want to travel to a certain destination in business, use a site that will track those prices for you and notify you when they drop.

2. Don’t Stress About Every Price Change, But Check Prices Often

See a price move up or down? Don’t freak out quite yet. Wait a few days to see if it goes back down, or if it dips to the price you’re actually willing to pay.

3. Flexible with Dates? Shift Your Travel Day Back and Forth

If your travel dates can flex by a day or two, play around with that. You may be able to pull back into a lower priced bucket.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Check Indirect Flights or Nearby Airports

If you’re flexible with your destination, looking at less popular routes can not only save you money but may give you more opportunities to take advantage of these fare shifts. Why? Popular routes will have more consistent pricing because demand is constant. Routes with more competition or less demand will have more price fluctuations.

Should you see that deal disappear? DON’T PANIC. Chances are it will come back.

That business-class ticket you just lost will reappear at some point. Sometimes that’s tomorrow. Sometimes it’s next week. Prices go up and down for a reason and if that deal you’re looking for disappeared, it’s likely because:

The pricing algorithm recalculated due to a drop in demand.

A competitor put every seat on sale for a limited time.

The available seat buckets changed and your ideal price moved back down.

Something else changed that made your dream price available again.

There is a method to madness. And when enough of these factors align, that deal will pop right back up.

How BCFlights Can Help You Act Quickly on Deals

Understanding pricing patterns is just part of the battle when it comes to finding a great business-class deal. Finding a great flight to book once your price drops is another.

BCFlights.com can help you with both.

Searching for prices is part of the equation we factor into our pricing intelligence. That’s helpful and all but…

BCFlights goes one step further by understanding the quality of each individual flight. We analyze every flight’s seat quality, seat map, layover experience, inflight service. With our filters you can instantly see which options are both low in price and high on your desired cabin experience. That way you know it’s worth jumping on those prices when they do drop.

BCFlights.com empowers you to not only save money but fly business class on flights you’ll actually enjoy being on.

What It All Means

And there you have it. The reasons business-class fares will disappear from a website only to reappear days or even hours later are the same reason prices change at all.

• Airlines are constantly changing prices;

• Seats are sold in chunks according to fare buckets;

• Demand for certain flights goes up and down constantly;

• And every once in a while, sales and error fares can cause prices to temporarily dip.

Don’t worry about trying to figure out why these things happen. Just know they will happen and when you see that deal reappear, grab it.

By knowing how airlines operate and control their seat inventory, you’ll be able to understand these price movements and be ready to pounce when your dream price shows up.

And when that time comes, BCFlights can help you decide whether that price is on a flight you’ll want to book.