dascc

I've had my eye on a specific sailing but have been waiting on a card to arrive in the mail to complete the booking.

What's odd is that when I check availability on my work PC it lists three options for Balcony rooms: Obstructed view, Regular and Extended Balcony.

When I get home it lists Obstructed and Extended only. I've checked the site the past two days and its done the same thing. Is this a glitch or do they offer certain things based off of browser type or IP address?

I remember there being a few news stories in the past discussing "dynamic pricing" that some retailers use based on location or if depending if accessed from a Windows Machine vs Mac vs Mobile device.

Is it known if cruise lines use this strategy?

747FC

Dynamic pricing can also be influenced by your browsing/cookie history, so clearing the cache before viewing the site is in your best interest.

dascc

I'll give that a try.

Romelle

The cache clearing is always a good idea.

But without inside information there is no way to know just how sophisticated companies are nowadays.

A friend and I were researching buying some flower seeds for our gardens. I don't remember the exact numbers but somewhere between $10 and $15. For the exact same item, her pricing showed $1 more when she was on her computer logged in as her, vs my computer logged in as me. We checked multiple times and always got the same variation. She is one zip code away. My neighborhood has a higher average income. I've bought more from the company in the past. Who knows just what caused that difference.

A cruise wholesaler remembers my senior age, and shows me any senior discount, vs what my son sees. I know I've never put my age into their site separately, although I've used it when making a purchase through them. So they've grabbed that fact, remembered it, and use it in my future searches.

bchandler02

I've starting using InPrivate/Incognito mode in browsers when doing anything with the travel industry. The less they can remember about me, the better.

Randyk47

For at least one cruise line some folks from CruiseCritic got together on line and did a series of test searches. They made sure everybody was looking at the same ship, sailing, and room category. They tried signing in with and without their loyalty program number, they cleared caches, they made sure they were looking at full cost including tax and fees, they were from a number of states from close to the embarkation port to distant, and so on. The variation in the price was actually quite surprising. The biggest surprise, and also disappointment, was despite supposedly there being a reduction or discount for being a returning or loyal line passenger the posted fare was often at the same cost as a new passenger could get and even sometimes higher. The end result for me was I was even more convinced to stick with my Internet agency/agent and get my 10-12% discount from them.