Justme123456

I heard the author of this article speak about it on Leo Laportes' podcast (which I believe you can download from his website) but here is a link to the actual posting with screenshots, in case anyone is interested.

If this is in the wrong forum, feel free to move.

sts603

Yeah that's a bunch of it. I don't believe for a second that AA is intentionally raising prices. The GDS system works just doesn't work like that. There may be technical reasons to clear your browser to wipe the slate clean but it isn't malicious. Plus, unless the user clicked through both legs of the trip to see what the total was - he doesn't know anything about what the fare was given the number of negative number options out there nowadays on aa.com.

And the hotel thing had nothing to do with different prices, it had to do with using profiling data to put higher classes of hotels up to for certain users. The total number of options and the prices were all the same. Nothing wrong with that IMHO.

jordyn

[deleted]

daru1

I'll just add a data point to this, in my weekly bookings that were made recently, both before and after the changes to aa.com, I have had to clear out my cookies to get the best prices. I'm not calling shenanigans yet as I have heard this was a problem last year with AA, but it definitely doesn't hurt. Also, it's still easy to get two different prices when booking from a link (such as google.com/flights) rather than logging onto aa.com.

DillMan

The first search is for a roundtrip flight with a non-Saturday night stay. The second search is for a one-way flight. Completely different scenarios.

EdwinMass

Instead of clearing cookies, could I just use Private Browsing with Fireforx (aka Incognito for Chrome)?

nbevan

I can think of 4 possible reasons for differences in fares at any particular instant in time:

1. The search engine may not find all available flights (definitely a current problem with aa.com for multi-segment flights). The flights are still there on aa.com, but may need a more specific search specification.

2. Differently constructed multi-segment fares. This can be a problem, though any discrepancy between different providers for the same search specification would be consistent.

3. Differences in availability in a particular fare class. There can be differences in availability in different geographical markets, but I have yet to see any evidence that the availability on aa.com is different to any other provider in the same region. Even easier to check now that aa.com shows the number of free seats.

4. Differences in price for a particular fare class. Highly unlikely as the fares are published.

So I see no way that browser history could influence this.

grahampros

Agreed. This does not seem cookie related at all. There are any number of reasons you can get different fares that have absolutely nothing to do with your browser. Folks with limited knowledge of how their computers work read something like that and RUN with it.

hillrider

AA doesn't use GDS when it offers you prices: it has built a front-end to "merchandise" to you, i.e. sell you what it wants to sell to you. It is a strategy they made very clear, just do a search. This is opposed to what GDSs do, which is to show all that's available to you.

hillrider

Yes!!

HKG_Flyer1

Interesting discussion. I had difficulty booking a fare on AA last week--- it kept pricing out at nearly $1,000 roundtrip, but was showing on ITA as $560. I ended up having to go to Expedia to access the $560 fare.

FAA1996

It's happening to me right now, traveling to Italy at the end of July, if I sign in to my account, lowest Busisness class fares are $5,000+ if I don't sign in, they start at $3,600. Same flights, same dates, etc.
I've also booked a flight in J to London and found the same flights and classes for less on Expedia; emailed them about the Low Fare Guarantee but they were taking forever to get back to me. I called and cancelled (whithin 24 hours) and booked on Expedia. Funny thing is I then immediately got a personalized email stating that they were stopping their "research" into the Lowest Fare Guarantee" because they saw I had cancelled my ticket.

brp

I've certainly seen the Expedia/Orbitz less than AA thing. In some cases, this is due to the other site bypassing married segments that AA won't do.

I've not yet seen the logged-in/logged-out thing. Right now I have Yapta tracking a bunch of flights for me. When I go to AA.com (logged in or not), I can find the same fares in the same circumstances. In a few cases, Aa were about $15 less than the Yapta quotes.

Cheers.

sts603

Technical issues aside, aa.com doesn't come up with different fares (except during bona fide errors) than GDS-based booking engines. Otherwise, Aa would be handing out best fare guarantees and I think violating the Air Travelers Consumer Rights law or whatever it is routinely.

canyonleo

Easier than doing anything with cookies - you should have multiple browsers (such as IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) on your machine for multiple purposes. Have one with ALL cookies turned off, and use it only for surfing sites where you don't want any tracking or cookie-functionality (which is needed for many account related sites)... and use browser this for this type of AA-anonymous use.

Use a different browser that accepts cookies (for only your needed sites if you wish) for all your "trusted" sites for your accounts (like banks, travel, utilities, etc.).

Use a third browser that always accepts all cookies, but you only use it when you must (an example I can think of is buying something from a retailer that you'll never visit again, or using some website just once but it requires use of cookies).

This way, you can use a non-accepting cookie browser to search on AA, then go to your regular browser with account log on to book the exact itinerary without a "search".