Possible gotcha with low-cost websites

Z

zag

Guest
It seems (reported, not tested) that some websites (airlines in particular) use cookies to mark up the prices they quote on repeat visits.

The theory goes like this -
You visit www.lowcostairline.com and think the prices for flights to London are pretty good, and you go off to check with the other half to see if she wants a weekend way. Return to the website, enter the details again and the prices have gone up. Re-enter them again thinking you got the details wrong, but the same price comes up.

Maybe they sold the last few cheap seats while you were off checking.

Or maybe they set a cookie along the lines of "Customer hooked by low pricing = yes"

If anyone is booking flights it *could* be worth deleting the relevant cookies.

z
 
Hi zag,

Ive long suspected this and delete the cookies just before I make a serious booking. I ve never got a cheaper price though.

btw.. the post does not belong in the IT section, the Airlines section perhaps but its original location would seem to me to be the best.

ajapale
 
Ditto to what ajapale says. Except that I have turned up a cheaper booking in this way...

Am currently fishing around on the Ryanair website for a cheapo faml'y hols package in January and will "defo" delete all my cookies when it comes to making a definitive booking.

Began to get suspicious about this time last year, when I was looking to book a large family group on Rhino-Air — got what I presumed to be their "best available rate", then rang my sister-in-law in Paris, just to check, and it transpired that she could get us a significant saving by booking all the (exact same) flights from the French side, as two separate one-way bookings.

Trust no-one, least of all ol' M. O'Leary... ;)

Dr. M.
 
Hmm, I thought I posted this originally in good deals/bad deals as it related more to pricing than to an IT issue.

Maybe someone moved it.

z
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top