In a study published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Olivia Natan, an assistant professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business, and her colleagues investigated the pricing strategies of major U.S. airlines. Contrary to common belief and consumer assumptions, the study found that many popular hacks for finding cheaper airline tickets are ineffective. Airlines do not take into account the substitution of flights when setting prices, and they do not adjust their prices in response to competitors. Additionally, airlines rely on a fixed menu of prices with large gaps between each price point. The study also revealed a lack of coordination between different departments within airlines in setting prices. While airlines may experiment with more dynamic pricing in the future, for now, the best advice for finding lower fares is to purchase tickets before prices significantly increase close to the travel date.
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-cheapest-plane-ticket.html