that's a long way away. i'm sure none of the seats have been booked.

Batman:

 

that's a long way away. i'm sure none of the seats have been booked.

 

The number of seats booked doesn't really matter in this context. It's seat availability that is the key. You'd probably be surprised how far out seats sell - the number of people who commute weekly between NZ and AU is huge, and some companies or individuals just block book fares up to a year in advance.

When the 9 available seats in a booking class in GDS sell the back end system needs to make a  decision what it will do next, which will follow business rules. It may release no more of that booking class at that price forcing you to book the next class higher up, or it may decide to release more availability of the same class. Those sorts of decisions depend on the route and loadings.

I have a similar scenario at the moment.

Booking holiday for family for next year. 3 family groups with 8 of us in total, 4 in my family. Searched fares and could get premium economy at $1600 (one-way) each for the 4 of us. 2 days ago family member booked 2 seats for their family also in PE at that price, and when I went to book my family yesterday, price was up to $2000 per seat, Doh!!!. If I did a search for just 1 seat, price was still $1600 but showed the higher fare for 2 or more seats. So yeah, must only be 1 left in that booking class.

kiwiharry:

 

I have a similar scenario at the moment.

 

Booking holiday for family for next year. 3 family groups with 8 of us in total, 4 in my family. Searched fares and could get premium economy at $1600 (one-way) each for the 4 of us. 2 days ago family member booked 2 seats for their family also in PE at that price, and when I went to book my family yesterday, price was up to $2000 per seat, Doh!!!. If I did a search for just 1 seat, price was still $1600 but showed the higher fare for 2 or more seats. So yeah, must only be 1 left in that booking class.

 

 

 

 

 

That sucks! after some more research Webjet maybe a good option as they guarantee the price for 30 minutes, even if the price rises in between times. so all groups logon and get the fares they want, then book all within the 30 mintues and you should be able to get all of them for the correct price, read the T&C of the price hold guarantee as there are some limitations.

kiwiharry:

 

I have a similar scenario at the moment.

 

Booking holiday for family for next year. 3 family groups with 8 of us in total, 4 in my family. Searched fares and could get premium economy at $1600 (one-way) each for the 4 of us. 2 days ago family member booked 2 seats for their family also in PE at that price, and when I went to book my family yesterday, price was up to $2000 per seat, Doh!!!. If I did a search for just 1 seat, price was still $1600 but showed the higher fare for 2 or more seats. So yeah, must only be 1 left in that booking class.

 

 

 

 

 

If you use something with GDS access such as ExpertFlyer you can see realtime availability of seats and booking classes - with the obvious limitation that you'll never see more than 9 on Air NZ as that's all they release at a time.