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Their algorithm is pretty impressive. I was super careful this time, checked price/availability on a random Wifi connection, private browser tab, BIO-MAN return 140€. Sorted the day off work, went to book it a few hours later, different IP address etc, 189€. Had also gone up on Skyscanner etc. Every time...
Well for starters there's your initial request to easyjet for prices.
Sorry, is this a trick question?
It knows someone looked that’s all they need.
Our local cricket club were organising a night out last year. Someone spotted rooms at travel lodge were cheap so they shared it on WhatsApp.
I checked the prices and went to book as I knew the prices would jump. I lost my Wi-fi connecting because of where I was. Took about 10 minutes to reconnect, about 10 or more others had checked the prices from our group but not booked. The price jumped by £15 in that time.
@thegeneralist how did they know it was me though? Or did the price go up for everyone since that moment? If so, sorry everyone 🙁
It knows someone looked that’s all they need.
I beg my wife every year "stop checking flights Hun" and every year I get a text message every day "they've gone up £20!!!".
Ahh the joys of amadeus. I bet they've now plugged something like splunk into it and can find your initial search through that. There'll be no long term search logging within the application as that would be too resource-hungry, but splunk is designed to find pattern matches. A quick cross-check with that and it'd be relatively simple to bung an extra few quid on, on the off-chance that it's you they're victimising.
I know its a crazy suggestion but... Its likely when you fly there'll be other passengers on the plane.
They'll all be checking and buying tickets and as they do, and the plane fills up, the remaining tickets will get more expensive
Flight to Prague. Nobody knows about it. £5.
Count 1: £5.
"'ere Brenda, look at this cheap flight"
Count 2: "ooh", says Easyjet, "people are interested in this. Keep it cheap but add a quid"
£6
Count 4,5 and 6: Bendand fella check. Wife asks mate. "Look at this, book quick, it's cheap"
£7
"Are you sure?, It's just changed?"
"Has it?
£8
"Oh yeah look"
£9
"Oh yeah"
£10
"ere, bob, look it's gone up"
£11
"Christ, stop clicking it"
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
"'ere Derek, look at this cheap flight - only £11"
They'll have sold some seats in the time since you checked.
They're sold a bit like train tickets, the first handful sold are the super cheap, headline price ones. They increase in price as more are sold, so that the business guy booking the last minute flight to London tomorrow pays the highest price for one of the last seats.
There was a Bottom Line podcast about it. Quite interesting how they do it actually.
You sure that nobody else came along in the meantime and booked a couple of seats, which is more likely to have driven the price increase?
@thegeneralist how did they know it was me though? Or did the price go up for everyone since that moment?
Yep, that's sort of the point I'm making. They don't necessarily know or care that it was you. Any interest may drive up prices.
Though I'm sure they would love to know exactly who it was..... cookies etc
Not sure if they have a time-of-day thing going too but they've been selling direct supply+demand tickets long enough to have written the book about it and they will have finely tuned to the pricing engine to eek out cash from customers based on their propensity to click 'Buy' rather than go window shopping. The whole tracking thing is an arms-race and whilst you took good steps not to get rinsed by something simple like an IP address or tracking cookie there's a whole industry out there devoted to profiling and identifying legitimate customers via whatever means possible.
I found this a number of years back, so I now check for flights then hold them and then your requested to log on and then purchase them. Found this with other airlines too.
hey’ll have sold some seats in the time since you checked.
They’re sold a bit like train tickets, the first handful sold are the super cheap, headline price ones. They increase in price as more are sold, so that the business guy booking the last minute flight to London tomorrow pays the highest price for one of the last seats.
It does not respond to checking it reponds to sales. Cheap seats sold first. My Split flights wre the same proce two nights in a row from the same static ip. It says "only 2 seats left at this price"
Yes it is far better to book a few 15 quid flights if avail than to buy the flexi price, or a last minute one. Planes and trains are the same pricing mechanism, as are alsa buses in spain btw.
I buy a lot of train tickets. I look on Trainline for best prices and routes and they invariably say limited numbers at quoted price. I usually book direct with train companies to save fees and there are always unlimited tickets available.
They are trying to frighten you into buying now so as not to miss out. Bit of a con really.