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The article mentions that there is little evidence for prices changing based on cookies. I've seen that happen, reproducibly and in a plausible way: The (third

The article mentions that there is little evidence for prices changing based on cookies. I've seen that happen, reproducibly and in a plausible way: The (third party) site was adding an "agency discount" (name may not be precise, this is from memory, IIRC it was ~$10-30) that turned into a significant (IIRC $50+) "agency surcharge" on your second visit. Clear cookies, discount is back, revisit, surcharge is back, 100% reproducible.

mehrdadn 6y ago
Along these lines, I've noticed airlines seem to jack up a ticket price in the subsequent days if you search for a ticket, visit their website, and don't buy the ticket. Though maybe if you wait a couple weeks they might get disappointed and lower it again. Anybody had a similar experience? (From what I can tell, it doesn't tend to happen if you don't actually visit their website.)
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  I always buy using the airline’s website and no middleman website, and sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. I use google flight tracker sometimes to track the price, and I can’t find anything to indicate it is targeting me specifically. I presume the price goes up and down based on aggregate searches or reservations for the flight, i.e. supply and demand. I know for hotels, there are programs crawling and searching for competing hotel’s prices and changing pricing based on that as well as changes in inventory and prior year’s data.
  - mehrdadn 6y ago
    I've seen this happen fairly consistently on very low-demand off-peak flights. I don't think it's a supply/demand thing. The coincidence of the timing a day or two after I search and the consistency of the experience is what makes me think they do it deliberately. The normal price variations I do see too (including with Google flight tracker), but they don't seem to correlate nearly as strongly with my searches. Hard to prove it though...
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      If your search causes the price to go to for anyone who searches, them I would still say it isn’t targeting a specific buyer, but just that it’s triggered by a lower level of demand. I can imagine that a route with 500 available seats won’t be programmed to be sensitive to one search, but a route with 10 seats could be.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

mehrdadn 6y ago

Along these lines, I've noticed airlines seem to jack up a ticket price in the subsequent days if you search for a ticket, visit their website, and don't buy the ticket. Though maybe if you wait a couple weeks they might get disappointed and lower it again. Anybody had a similar experience? (From what I can tell, it doesn't tend to happen if you don't actually visit their website.)

lotsofpulp 6y ago
I always buy using the airline’s website and no middleman website, and sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. I use google flight tracker sometimes to track the price, and I can’t find anything to indicate it is targeting me specifically. I presume the price goes up and down based on aggregate searches or reservations for the flight, i.e. supply and demand. I know for hotels, there are programs crawling and searching for competing hotel’s prices and changing pricing based on that as well as changes in inventory and prior year’s data.
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  I've seen this happen fairly consistently on very low-demand off-peak flights. I don't think it's a supply/demand thing. The coincidence of the timing a day or two after I search and the consistency of the experience is what makes me think they do it deliberately. The normal price variations I do see too (including with Google flight tracker), but they don't seem to correlate nearly as strongly with my searches. Hard to prove it though...
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    If your search causes the price to go to for anyone who searches, them I would still say it isn’t targeting a specific buyer, but just that it’s triggered by a lower level of demand. I can imagine that a route with 500 available seats won’t be programmed to be sensitive to one search, but a route with 10 seats could be.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]