Does a frequent search increase the price?
Oct 8, 2019, 6:29 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,345
Does a frequent search increase the price?
Been looking at flight LGW to PFO 16 Sept for the last few days and today the price has increased a little. Just its a year away so I'm surprised. Is it because I have been looking or has it genuinely gone up, is there any way of telling? Should I wait to see if it goes back down or can I clear my cookies or something? Thanks
Oct 8, 2019, 6:35 am
#2
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Location: Leeds, UK
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If you look at it using incognito mode and the price is still the same then I think you can answer the question about whether it is in anyway related to you viewing the flight. In my experience there is no such link between looking at a flight over a few days and the price changing.
Oct 8, 2019, 6:36 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold / OW Emerald
Posts: 753
This doesn't happen on BA when booking direct. The inventory is pretty much public and so are the prices. If someone buys the last ticket for a certain fare bucket or if exchange rates change, this can happen.
Online travel agents however could be doing that, as they have control on how much they charge.
Online travel agents however could be doing that, as they have control on how much they charge.
Oct 8, 2019, 7:42 am
#4
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,659
Been looking at flight LGW to PFO 16 Sept for the last few days and today the price has increased a little. Just its a year away so I'm surprised. Is it because I have been looking or has it genuinely gone up, is there any way of telling? Should I wait to see if it goes back down or can I clear my cookies or something? Thanks
Oct 8, 2019, 8:21 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 1,387
As well as not being true, the logic for implementing such a feature would be quite questionable- you could easily dissuade someone from booking by suddenly increasing the price, as easily as panicking them into booking immediately.
Oct 8, 2019, 8:28 am
#6
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: UK
Programs: BA Blue, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond
Posts: 304
Don't forget that searching using an Apple device will increase the price, as you are presumed to be better off than PC or Android users.
(Technically very easy to implement- chances of actually being true? Slim)
(Technically very easy to implement- chances of actually being true? Slim)
Oct 8, 2019, 9:16 am
#7
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EXP/OWE, Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 880
I would also recommend clearing your cookies in between searches. I have seen this happen several times, especially if I do a search on Kayak.com specifically. Have also experienced it on BA and AA sites, but more-so on aggregate travel sites.
Interesting theory on the Apple/PC devices. I wonder how true that is!
Interesting theory on the Apple/PC devices. I wonder how true that is!
Oct 8, 2019, 9:59 am
#11
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 2,422
That's the opposite problem though, someone searches for a price and the current price is stored in a cooking (no idea why they think this is a good idea) then the price increases but a subsequent search from the same computer first returns the old price and then the notification that it has increased.
Oct 8, 2019, 10:20 am
#13
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Would be useful to come up with some actual examples so we can see why there are differences, rather than just posting stuff from twitter which is not exactly a reliable source. I suspect there is a rational explanation for the one you posted which doesn't involve BA target pricing individual people.
Oct 8, 2019, 10:22 am
#15
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What examples have you found yourself?