UK (London) to US (NYC) Airline Ticketing Conspiracy?

Oktane

Yesterday (the 29th Aug), I searched for flights to NY over the holidays in October. (20th till 29th). There were 4 airlines offering tickets for aroung the £250-£270 price range. Today, every airline for the same dates is offering £360-£370 tickets. How do they all justify a £100 price increase in one day AND all be within £20 pounds of each other? This can be checked by looking at all the Airline Brokerages (ebookers, airline network, opodo, expedia etc)Surely they must have had some form of communication? Would that not be illegal as it could be construde as price fixing?

Should I hold off and purchase last minute tickets, or should I buy now and take the hit?

richardw

Fares go up and down all the time. They watch each other like hawks. If BA start a sale Virgin are bound to follow. Price fixing is when they actually meet up and agree to set prices. I don't think they are doing this.

Just keep an eye on prices and flexibility of the tickets.

Weggy

Wasn't there a recent investigation into several airlines (I wont give names in case I get them wrong!) being part of a cartel, running trans-atlantic flights?

Edit: Found the story....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ba/story/0,,1803238,00.html

Oktane

Well on the back of that article you would say something like this would certianly lend itself to the case. Ironically, BA's prices are the only ones to have not moved (Around the £370 mark). It was Virgin, AA, Air India, KLM and Continental if my memory serves me correctly.

From what i believe its not illegal for a company to copy the price movements of a the market leaders (I think its called Price Leadership). However it is illegal to have unspoken/informal agreements, which is difficult to prove.