This is a complete shock to me… although maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. I’d like to think anyone on here doesn’t need to pay for their flights because we’ve all racked up enough free frequent flyer miles and what not. But the reality is, I like to know how cheap the flight is going to be before I pay with miles and sometimes I do pay for flights. Normally if I do it’s straight from AA.com but odder things have happened. Anyways…
The other day at the end of an Ultimate frisbee game, my teammate Carter said something I just couldn’t believe but of course I had to test it myself. (Yes, there are Ultimate frisbee teams!) He said “and I just found out that airline tickets cost more if they know you’ve been looking for them. So you have to clear your cookies and stuff. That’s screwed up!” He had no idea how travel obsessed I am and what not and suddenly he got my attention.
So today I tried it. We can be pretty sure that my cookies are filled with flight searches and all that jazz so I just checked prices cleared cookies and then checked again.
Here’s what I got on Kayak for IAD – SIN, April 1 – April 8.
$1,000 on Qatar, however Expedia.com showed a little bit more.
$1,310 on Expedia. I checked on a bunch of different platforms and took screen shots along the way. Then cleared all my cookies and browsing data and tried again. Then went straight to Kayak and it had the same $1,000 ticket. Kayak seemingly confirmed my instinct that it was a bunch of fiction. Until I searched on Expedia again. May you not believe your eyes!
$1,000 for the same Qatar flight that they were charging $1,310 on a minute before a cleared my browsing data! I sat here going back and forth between the two screen shots. Yep. Qatar flights 52 and 642 on April 1 – April 8. What the heck!?
But just because the same thing happen on the other search aggregators in this example, doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it too! All I know is that they can do and they do do it! (On a side note, notice that Kayak found cheaper rates than expedia for Qatar and United).
Did anyone know this already? Is it common flyer-nerd knowledge and I just never cared? Are other people as annoyed as Carter was when he found this out? It seems backwards to me – but it seems to me that you want to give people who are looking incentive to buy from you. Or do people just not cross check prices?
I use Expedia all the time, just searched a flight on both to do a comparison and every single flight result was the exact same price.
On both, meaning two different search engines?
Yea… I mean expedia is not the only one that does this. And they may not do it on every flight. These are my honest to goodness screenshots and since then I’ve read of many others reporting that the prices went up while they were searching and how clearing cookies reset the prices.
Meaning I did a search on Kayak and Expedia at the same time. Not calling you a liar or anything, but there was no price difference when I tried it and I haven’t cleared any cookies and use Expedia to book travel for my employees on a regular basis.
I had no idea that they do this! Does Expedia have their best price guarantee on airfares? If so, you could make them beat the $1000 couldn’t you (if you went on the first screen shot)?
I rarely actually use any booking sites – I like to use them to find the best price and then usually go straight to the source – i.e. the airline with the deal on offer.
I am going to have a play and see if this happens for me. Did you play with any other sites other than Kayak for comparison with Expedia. Did you close Kayak before you did your first search on Expedia?
http://www.roam-rove-ramble.blogpspot.com
I believe the BRG is only valid for the hotels. I only played with one site but I believe it’s industry standard. Like after 3 searches for the same flight in your cookies they know you need the flight and mark it up. I searched on all at the same time. Cleared cookies. Searched again.
I found this anomaly about 18 months ago and am convinced that this is true with United.com. I use two different computers when I am chasing a flight to the same city pair day after day and use one of the computers with cleared cookies and seem sometimes to get better prices.
I believe it is true of United.com too. I have been looking for cheap, non-stop, SFO to PHL for my brother on either United or Virgin. Since they have been discounting tickets from LAX or SFO-LAX- PHL, the non-stop tickets from SFO have not been included in the price war for summer travel. I found an OK fare, under $400 and called him to book it but 2 hours later that same flight was $539. I cleared my cookies and searched one hour later and found 6 tickets left at $388. He couldn’t find those tickets on his computer even with the flight number. I booked for him so he got the discounted fare.
Wow. Yea, I have a friend who said that all the airlines do it. He said if you’ve searched for a flight 3 times they know you need it and therefore they raise the price. I was also told that macbooks get charged more but I’m not sure I believe it… however it could be worth testing.
this happened on me just now! expedia bumped their price on me for nearly +$500! @__@ it was $770 now it’s $1250… wow…meanwhile other search engines (priceline, kayak..etc) prices stayed the same (or is it cuz I didn’t search enough?)
Ha ha. You guys have just saved me £82!
Thanks!
I agree. Expedia = Crooked. I searched for a flight three times, and the price went up by $50. I booked it. Then from a different computer the flight was back to its original price.
There is no incentive of dealing with them…
Yup its true. I searched a flight like 10 times on expedia and orbits and it kept going up every time I searched it
it’s true, I was searching today, and prices kept going up, as I searched more.. couldnt find same deals.. what a scam
Expedia did that to us this morning. This is a serious scam.