Here's why plane ticket pricing is so confusing - but more transparency may be coming soon

Few things in the travel industry are more tightly guarded than the algorithm designed to make you pay as much as possible for a particular flight. And few things are more frustrating than forking out a fortune for a flight, only to find out the last-minute traveller sitting next to you paid a fraction of what you did.

Airline ticket pricing is not a practice that many other businesses outside the travel industry follow. For the most part, aviation companies run a bit rogue to extract as much profit from their operations as possible.

So how is it possible that two passengers on the same flight pay such vastly different amounts? According to Bonnie Smith, general manager at FCM Travel, airfares are mostly determined by economics.