Airfare warfare

For heaven's sake - don't you hate the way that airfares keep on changing, usually in an upward direction?! As I blogged a week ago, I'm trying to get to the Baltic countries this summer. My great-grandfather came from Memel, East Prussia, now Klaipeda, Lithuania. I've found a nice tour that takes it in, with an OK price. My intention was to book tomorrow, but the bloke just emailed me to say the airfare had shot up. I went online to check for myself, and within five minutes it had come down again! I suppose all this is automated - or are there people sitting at computers in all the airline offices rubbing their hands as they mess people's plans up. "Hehehehe let's slap on another hundred quid to Estonia - and then take it off again. Hehehehe!" Hopefully, things will be a little calmer tomorrow when I move in for the kill...