HereKittyKitty

well it might be me... but, I am pretty sure when I am looking at the easyjet sight and going back and forth checking prices and times that the price has '"jumped" and is more expensive than when I had looked 5 mins ago!!

Please can somebody tell me I'm not going mad?

cafeconleche

Mmm I'm not an expert and sure people will give you a better answer but I have heard it does happen!!!
And is due to you having cookies on your comp. Maybe you could disable them and see if it makes a difference.

Would like to know myself if this is true or not?

surreygirl

I have noticed that the prices change from one minute to the other, but I have also found that sometimes the price goes down, although it is more common that the price goes up

Carol&John

Hi,
Yep, someone posted info on this very topic not too long ago. You have to disable the "cookies" (as mentioned above) attached to your computer by the site to which you have logged on. Go to "tools", "internet options", "delete browsing history", "delete cookies". Could the computer literates please confirm this information? Thanks.
Or, log on from another computer, if possible, and see if the price is different.
Hope it helps.
Carol

HereKittyKitty

thanks for that tip Carol.

twyntub

It's known as Dynamic Pricing, where prices are set according to (mainly) load factor and time but also some other factors as well. Most e-commerce sites use it, not just the airline industry - but companies like Dell, etc don't tend to shout about it because you wouldn't want to know that the PC you bought yesterday is now £100 cheaper today.

Put simply: when booking a flight, as the number of people booking that particular flight increases - so does the price - instantly. First come - first served.

It encourages early bookings, better cashflow as people are paying for their flights months and months in advance, but when done right can encourage better load factors overall (for example the cheaper flights can act as a loss-leader for you to book a round trip which overall costs more) as well as a better spread of passenger load.

The real trick is to always buy the return trip with different airlines... you'd be amazed how much that can sometimes save.

Mitzyboy

We have proved it happens.

My sister checked a flight on her home computer, and when she went back to it to book, it had gone up. She accessed it via her work computer and the price was the same as it was originally.

onlineamiga

Yeah i noticed this too on Jet2s website. Me and my mother were both looking at the same flight, on our computers whilst on the phone to each other. Yet on her screen the flight cost more!

Im not sure that disabling cookies will fix stuff. If anything it would make the whole booking process fail.

jdr

Yep you need a different PC to fool it.

crispy

I booked flights for my Sister last night to fly easyjet, Gatwick to Gib middle of May for one week. Check flights got price of £46.99 return, I phoned her to confirm dates and told her the price when I went back to book it final price was £57.00. Now I know why.

Same Difference

I have just spent 45 mins looking between 4 different airline websites going back and forth between them, trying return and one way trips and the flight prices didnt change at all

spain

I was looking recently, in the search I was just putting 1 adult to check out the prices, then when I went to book the actual flights - 2 adults and 1 child they increased the price - so I went back and checked the price for 1 adult and it was still at the lower price :curse: so because the party was bigger it was working out approx 70€ more overal

so might be worth booking 1 at a time if its only adults flying becasue of course children cant go alone

GrapeEater

I've noticed both ways! It's great guessing how all this works and there's no doubt in my mind that 'Dynamic Pricing' works in some way here. My brother was a bookmaker with Labrokes years ago and they had a computer system feeding the Odds in real time so why not the airlines ?

But I can't help thinking that each flight must have a break-even point to make it economic to fly the thing (it's costs X but we want Y to achieve approx' Z profit) ???

So maybe there are only so many penny (low priced) tickets on each flight and then incremental increases based on historic demand and seasonal adjustments ????

Of course the formula will be a close guarded secret.

HereKittyKitty

at least I know I'm not going mad! It's happened to me loads of times then. Sounds like one big rip-off to me.

HereKittyKitty

Twyntub - I certainly hope that Dell Computer I ordered a few days ago aint £100 cheaper! I ain't even gonna look