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i've started flying recently a lot and in this one particular circuit i see loads of dark patterns. 1. there was this snow season last month and the roads stop
by 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
i've started flying recently a lot and in this one particular circuit i see loads of dark patterns.
1. there was this snow season last month and the roads stopped working and suddenly the air prices skyrocketed. (as is now expected), i had to buy a ticket in emergency which i paid 4x the reasonable rate with all websites saying "oops, the fare has increased" trick.
2. many websites did the "just 1 seat remaining" trick and i jumped the gun.
when the next day i traveled, the plane was half empty.
what happens is, travel agents buy up tickets well in advance and then sit on the bookings, they either sell directly or wait for online portals to sell them.
these travel agents having purchased tickets in bulk then say "oh, the ticket is priced $100 on kayak, i will sell it for 95. lets give you some discount" all the while having purchased the same for like 20.
these people are willing to forego tickets because its more profitable to keep the prices high
- GFischer 4y agoThey're gambling, because there are actually fines for those sorts of behaviors if they don't clear the unused bookings in a reasonable time or if ARC (the Airlines Reporting Corporation) or the distribution systems detect a fraudulent pattern. I'm actually building an internal tool for such fines (called "debit memos") for a company with several thousand travel agents, and they're not uncommon at all.
- jjeaff 4y agoUsually, the notices I have seen actually say "only 1 ticket remaining at this price". Which they can technically make true by simply setting their pricing algorithm to sell the next ticket for a penny more or a penny less.