jazzys

"You should delete your browser cookies before buying airline tickets - Ticket fares go up when you’ve visited a site multiple times."

I read that this morning and wondered if anyone had experienced it?

Cheers

Beoz

I used to wonder this myself. I did see it happen with easyjet a few years ago. Deleted the cookies and the fare went back down.

I use independent sites like kayak and skyscanner now. When I find the fare I want I then go to the airline site to book. So the price is usually stable.

asher

I don't think it is true as I have had problems with a site timing out and always been able to go back and find the same priced flight

vikingsail

I would err on the side that it is true. It is a much reported issue here in the US that mobile phone apps will quote you higher prices for goods than regular web surfing.

Fyi, internet marketing theory suggests that the best time to offer the lowest price to a customer is the first time they see you, as in the www world the seller knows you can very easily quick away so lowest/ fair price will always win. To make sure you are always viewed as a first time customer it is worth clearing out your computers 'cache' each time before visiting a website. Its a very simple and quick process. I do it now almost by habit when logging out and logging in. Just saying....

GarryP

It's a known issue with some sites where they assume that if you are coming back, you are looking to buy, therefore pushing the price up a bit can result in

1. money directly onto their profit margin
2. an incentive for you to buy now, before it goes up again.

Clearing the cookies can help, but to be honest, you don't need cookies to track users (your IP address will be stable, as will your MAC, and your browser spec.) They can also track what specific instances are being searched for - enough info there and they can track you no matter what. If you want to be worried, try this test - http://panopticlick.eff.org/

As such, they can still track you, even if you do clear cookies, and with this recent news story, they can offer you different prices depending on the information they know about you - legally. http://business.time.com/2013/03/05/...-is-traveling/

Amazon did it for a short while, before people caught on and they 'stopped'. No news on if they are just being a bit smarter nowadays, but judging by camel3 - my bet is yes.

Shop via comparison sites that don't pass on your details or take a rake off - but be aware that for the retailer, this can make a lot of difference to profit, and so they will be putting their best people on doing it.

eg break even price = $100
3% margin = $103
6% margin = $106

If they can add an extra $3 to the price, they can double their profits. Nobody is going to give up on that unless forced to.

brissybee

I have wondered about other purchase sites before now... and wouldn't be surprised if this was a widespread problem.

For example, I've visited Wotif, several times and all of a sudden the dates I want are gone and there are only more expensive ones available.

bcworld

I look at air fares a lot & I think this is a myth. If it were true it would be incredibly easy to prove it was happening.

Beoz

I haven't seen it in Australia but I certainly did with Sleazyjet. Removed cookies and got the old fares back

Pollyana

Same here! I spend a huge amount of time on various airline sites, both Aus and UK and it never affects the prices

Bermudashorts

Me too, I research flights all the time but have never noticed anything weird happening to prices.

commonwealth

is it true the ticket prices quoted are adjusted based on the country of your IP address (e.g. Australians are charged less if they book using a US IP address using their work PCs)?

bcworld

No.

GarryP

See the link I posted above - they have regularised the offering of different prices to different people. They don't need (and probably won't use) cookies to keep tabs on you - and if they can track that they are the cheapest for the flight you want, they can drift the prices up to increase their profit margin whilst remaining your preferred choice.

roaringmouse

All of which you could change - e.g. different computer after resetting modem (for those not on static IPs).

This article was an interesting read - basically the guy changed his motherboard and later his debit card got declined at a train station ticket machine along with other transactions before that. This was down to the device fingerprint of his computer changing due to hardware changes, so subsequent online transactions were flagged and this effected real world transactions.

Just a bit of insight on what can be checked with online payments... and could logically be extended to reflect what prices you see too without need for relying on cookies, IP or even necessarily MAC.

Pollyana

All of which explains why the prices I've been seeing lately on BA, Qantas, Zuji and Expedia are all the same when I search, regardless of whether it is one of the work ocs (one telstra, one Optus), my own laptop or my iphone....

Not that I have the slightest interest in deciphering conspiracy theories mind you, as far as I'm concerned I've never had an issue with prices being cookied or ip'd or even hiked by 30% overnight as someone reckoned recently. Perhaps I'm just lucky