So FareCompare has given you all these great ways to get their “When-to-Fly” alerts via Twitter and via email - but what gives when you get an alert tweet and you click-thru to FareCompare and get a message that says:

“Sorry, seats at the price you are looking for are no longer available!”

What gives? There are a couple reasons you are seeing this message:

• Time ran out. Seats at the lowest prices were snapped up before you got around to checking prices. Remember, quantities are always limited when the prices are lowest. Solution: Next time, open your Email Alert immediately – every second counts.
• The airline hasn’t posted the fare yet. An airline can file a fare change but delay or decline to release seats at that price. Solution: Remember, FareCompare When-to-Fly alerts are sent in real-time. FareCompare may have notified you of the sale before the airline or online travel agencies have updated their websites, so keep checking back!
• Seats are not available the days you selected to travel. The airlines release fares in many various combinations of schedules that may include or exclude the dates you may want to travel. FareCompare’s When-to-Fly calendars attempt to show you the prices for your prefered dates of travel, plus other dates near your prefered travel dates so that you can shop and find the best price for your budget.

FareCompare processes feeds from ATPCO (Airline Tariff Publishing Company) faster than most airfare deal sites. And we release our When-to-Fly alerts via email and Twitter, in real time. And if you didn’t know, we even publish the airlines ‘mistake’ fares, like this one from an airline that errantly filed flights to Europe sans fees.