Booking & Using a site to block your location
#46
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
I have had in the past an example of where BA's pricing increased on a journey I was pricing to Australia. I initially looked at LHR-BNE, it gave me one price, then I looked at LHR-SYD and it gave me that price, but when I went back to the LHR-BNE it gave me a higher price. Going onto a different browser and I got the original BNE price, as did clearing cookies.
I'm sorry you think it's an urban myth, but in my case it actually happened. As an IT bod involved in systems testing at times, I replicated the event at the time and used different browsers and even PCs to prove my hypothesis, as well as clearing out my browsers. The price went down to the original price I saw and always opened at the original price whatever PC or browser I used for the first time, and then increased as I alternated between BNE and SYD and back.
#47
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: London. Or a plane.
Programs: "Only" 50,000 TPs until BA GGLfL
Posts: 2,773
As I highlighted in the BA Sale thread, BA do indeed sometimes offer considerably different availability to UK and US POS. As an example, I'm booked on an extremely lightly loaded (40 seats assigned across all 4 cabins in the mid-J 747) LHR-MIA next week, availability is:
UK POS: F8 A7 J9 C0 D0 R0 I0 W9 E0 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N0 Q0 O0 G9
US POS: F8 A7 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E6 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L6 V5 S1 N0 Q0 O0 G9
In essence, BA try to extract maximum full-fare pricing from UK based flyers for last minute departures, but are willing to sell fistfuls of empty seats in the same cabin cheaply to US based flyers.
The answer to getting the lower price however has absolutely nothing to do with a VPN. You just visit expedia.com (not .co.uk) or priceline.com and book your ticket there, or you call BA in the USA.
UK POS: F8 A7 J9 C0 D0 R0 I0 W9 E0 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N0 Q0 O0 G9
US POS: F8 A7 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E6 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L6 V5 S1 N0 Q0 O0 G9
In essence, BA try to extract maximum full-fare pricing from UK based flyers for last minute departures, but are willing to sell fistfuls of empty seats in the same cabin cheaply to US based flyers.
The answer to getting the lower price however has absolutely nothing to do with a VPN. You just visit expedia.com (not .co.uk) or priceline.com and book your ticket there, or you call BA in the USA.
#49
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: UK
Programs: Lemonia. Best Greek ever.
Posts: 2,266
I have no idea how good BA's cookies are, or anyone else's, but I have developed a habit of doing research for travel on Firefox, and making bookings on a ccleaned IE. I do this for all purchases over about UKP200, aviation or otherwise..
Technically, it might or might not do me any good. It does make me feel better .
Hopefully, FB et al can't then target me with their "targeted" adverts.
Technically, it might or might not do me any good. It does make me feel better .
Hopefully, FB et al can't then target me with their "targeted" adverts.
#50
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,705
Regretfully. I didn't take screenshots as I was legitimately trying to buy a ticket and organise other events around the trip at the time. I haven't seen it since that time and I wonder if companies have become aware that if they did employ that level personal dynamic pricing, the negative PR generated wouldn't be worth the incremental revenue gained.
EU regulations don't make it illegal to offer dynamic pricing, but "personal dynamic pricing" gets really difficult to do legally. In addition to standard consumer protections and the various rules of the Single Market, there is a whole layer of protection on holding personal data. I'm not saying it's impossible to do, but large companies in particular would be really cautious in this area.
#51
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Godalming, Surrey, UK.
Programs: Nowt of note.
Posts: 1,628
I find it remarkable that this forum as a whole can be simultaneously so scathing of BA's IT prowess, yet also seemingly convinced of a capability to implement the most conspiratorially fiendish pricing mechanisms imaginable.
#52
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: UK. BAEC AAdvantage
Programs: Mucci Des Oeufs Brouilles et des Canards
Posts: 3,671
When things like this are reported, I'm always interested in how far the user went in the booking process. I can well believe that ba.com might do this for the initial screens showing the estimated prices for the outbound/inbound halves of the journey: the estimated half round-trip attribution algorithm has long been very buggy. But I would be more surprised if you priced LHR-BNE-LHR and went all the way through to a firm quote for the entire journey, then priced LHR-SYD-LHR and went all the way to a firm quote, then went back to LHR-BNE-LHR and went all the way to a firm quote to find the third price higher than the first price. I've seen all sorts of implausible rubbish on the initial screens, but I've never yet had a firm quote go wrong - and I've usually already worked out using other tools what that firm quote should be.
We are talking several years ago, and I would agree that BA.com had bugs in it. Doing a JV OW booking probably threw up issues for it. I'm sure that's how I was offered the upgrade to Premium Economy (it was on all Qantas metal but booked via BA.com) on for what I considered a small amount on the return leg!
#53
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: UK. BAEC AAdvantage
Programs: Mucci Des Oeufs Brouilles et des Canards
Posts: 3,671
An urban myth is something that is essentially or wholly untrue. The myth's origin's may be due to some one off anecdote, "a guy down the pub said...", an IT blip, perhaps an inventory refresh. I am pretty certain that every suggested example of this sort of activity brought in detail to this forum has been shown to be incorrect for various reasons. Or we simply aren't given enough detail to be able to research it fully. One previous case I recall related to the fact that on a previous visit to BA.com, the user had clicked on the "Flexible ticket?" flag, which isn't visible on the main search screen. Unless you clear it back the relevant cookie can be forcing that sort of search for a long time. What I do feel is that if this was a widespread issue on BA, we would have had chapter and verse about it very quickly, this is an international forum and quite a few people on it know what fares they ought to be getting. Furthermore non airline search engines such as Google force traffic to the cheaper travel options, and BA certainly knows this. Furthermore the fares are all published and available for examination by the informed public.
EU regulations don't make it illegal to offer dynamic pricing, but "personal dynamic pricing" gets really difficult to do legally. In addition to standard consumer protections and the various rules of the Single Market, there is a whole layer of protection on holding personal data. I'm not saying it's impossible to do, but large companies in particular would be really cautious in this area.
EU regulations don't make it illegal to offer dynamic pricing, but "personal dynamic pricing" gets really difficult to do legally. In addition to standard consumer protections and the various rules of the Single Market, there is a whole layer of protection on holding personal data. I'm not saying it's impossible to do, but large companies in particular would be really cautious in this area.
#54
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
It also makes no economic sense. In what other situation does a seller raise the price when a buyer is doing a lot of research into pricing and actively exploring the competitor's options?
If this were really happening, we would see people being offered flash deals, not flash price rises which encourage them to buy EK tickets instead.
If this were really happening, we would see people being offered flash deals, not flash price rises which encourage them to buy EK tickets instead.
#55
Join Date: Jul 2017
Programs: All the usual suspects
Posts: 342
I'm sorry you think it's an urban myth, but in my case it actually happened. As an IT bod involved in systems testing at times, I replicated the event at the time and used different browsers and even PCs to prove my hypothesis, as well as clearing out my browsers. The price went down to the original price I saw and always opened at the original price whatever PC or browser I used for the first time, and then increased as I alternated between BNE and SYD and back. It stayed at the price for a few days and was the one I booked at, so it definitely wasn't an availability issue. Regretfully. I didn't take screenshots as I was legitimately trying to buy a ticket and organise other events around the trip at the time. I haven't seen it since that time and I wonder if companies have become aware that if they did employ that level personal dynamic pricing, the negative PR generated wouldn't be worth the incremental revenue gained.
#56
Join Date: May 2008
Location: NH
Programs: Marriott Platinum
Posts: 20
#57
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Now that this thread has surfaced again, I am wondering about the following: Is there an ETA for the amendment to the pinned comment? Or will the correction only come after the viewing rate for the video has declined, so as to ensure that a greater number of people have seen the paid advertisement and the inaccurate example deployed to support the advertiser's product?
#58
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: RTP, NC, USA
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 37
I haven't had a chance to read the article yet, but I flew to Asia several times this summer for work, and it seemed like the agency they were using wasn't finding good fares at all vs. what I could dig up from here in the US. They'd find a $6K flight and I'd find something similar for $4.5K (all on UA since that's where I have status). This has been a consistent thing over the years - tried to have the team in Mexico book my flight but it was more to book from their side than mine (using our internal agency for that one) - same for others over the years.
Apologies for the cold post - will read the article - but something seems to change.
Apologies for the cold post - will read the article - but something seems to change.
#59
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 14
An interesting thread. I have found that it is worth looking at the price of tickets via partner airlines as quite frequently the same flight can be cheaper e.g. Iberia, American, Finnair and BA. The searches generally tell you which of those airlines you are travelling on and quite regularly the partner airline is cheaper than the flight provider. For example I travelled last autumn to NZ in business out of Paris using Air France to Taipei and China Airlines Taipei to Auckland. The Air France price for the flights was considerably higher (circa 3,400 euros) than the China Airlines price (2,200 Euros). I talked to a regular on this route to/from Taiwan on the way back and he said he always booked via China Airlines for the Air France flight as the price was cheaper every time.
#60
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,657
I'm sorry you think it's an urban myth, but in my case it actually happened. As an IT bod involved in systems testing at times, I replicated the event at the time and used different browsers and even PCs to prove my hypothesis, as well as clearing out my browsers. The price went down to the original price I saw and always opened at the original price whatever PC or browser I used for the first time, and then increased as I alternated between BNE and SYD and back. It stayed at the price for a few days and was the one I booked at, so it definitely wasn't an availability issue. Regretfully. I didn't take screenshots as I was legitimately trying to buy a ticket and organise other events around the trip at the time. I haven't seen it since that time and I wonder if companies have become aware that if they did employ that level personal dynamic pricing, the negative PR generated wouldn't be worth the incremental revenue gained.
I work in the contact centres so the example that i would quote is this. If there is some kind of pricing that is individual and unique to how many times you looked at a price how could i replicate the same quote in the contact centre, before you told me what price you had or gave me any of your details??