Same flights, same website, same everything. Different price. What the heck?

Ok, this one just baffles me. As a backstory, it’s been well known that you…

• Shouldn’t purchase codeshare tickets on American for US Airways or vice versa if you’re interested in upgrades.
• Can find different fares for the same flights on the AA website and the US Airways website.

…but I haven’t encountered this one yet. I found the same flights listed, both on AA.com, both with different prices. Let’s take a look.

Wanting to fly from Washington DC to Santa Barbara, California (one of my favorite cities), I was presented with several options to get there, the first being these two (in picture).

You’ll noticed that both are AA flights operated by US Airways. Interestingly, the first two (and cheapest) options listed are the exact same flights. Literally. And, for those wondering, the fare classes were the same, too.

This is a lesson for you AA/US travelers that over the next several months, until the reservations systems combine that when purchasing flights, make sure to look at all of the options on both websites. It would have been easy enough to somehow get stuck with the more expensive option here, without ever seeing the same option, at a cheaper price (play around with the search features, sort by schedule, price, etc.).

I’m assuming this is some type of IT glitch, but does anyone know why this is displaying like this?