Why do airline tickets get more expensive when booking for multiple passengers, and how to save money?

Passengers may encounter an interesting phenomenon when booking tickets for two or more people. For example, if you search for one traveler, the ticket costs $100, but for two – already $300, not $200.

All due to the imperfection of reservation systems. This situation applies to both low-cost carriers and regular airlines. For example if there is only one ticket left in the system for $100, and the next ticket costs $150, then the system will count two tickets at once for the higher fare. That’s why you will see a price of $300 instead of $250 ($100+$150).

It is easy to save in this situation: you need to book tickets separately.

So before you book a multi-person ticket, always check how much it costs per passenger.

If you are booking for three or more people, first check the price of the ticket for one and then for three. If the base price per person has not gone up, feel free to book tickets for everyone at once.

Has the base price per passenger gone up? Then do a search for two, three people, and so on to see how many cheap tickets are actually left.

By the way, some airlines and ticket finders may raise the price of tickets if you search frequently. To “zero out” the markup, you need to log in from a different device or in an anonymous browser mode.