Price not available when I tried to book

[dharkinsfl]

I received an email about sale prices for flights. A friend and I were trying to book.  When I clicked to purchase mine it said that price was not available. My friend's flight is $50 cheaper than mine.  Are there only so many seats available at the cheaper rate?  We were literally booking at the same time.

[TheMiddleSeat]

Yes, there are only a limited number of seats assigned to a specific price. As seats sell the price generally goes up. Sounds like your friend got the last of the cheaper fares. You should continue to check the price occasionally before your trip as sometimes the price goes down again and you can rebook at the lower fare. See numerous posts on this site about changing your flight to the lower price. 

[dharkinsfl]

I'm really frustrated now.  I went back to check prices of the flight just now.  The original departure price that I didn't get was $173.  Now it's $223 but on the flexible fare chart it is still showing the price as $173.  How does this happen?

[chgoflyer]

Southwest has abysmal IT. Prices are often out of sync. 😞

[TheMiddleSeat]

Yeah, not the best IT. All I can say is keep checking the booking screen price at least once a day, prices often go down even without an announced sale.