airlines should be banned from increasing prices the more you search

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This pisses me off no end. The more you search for a particular flight the higher its cost goes. Even ba do this shady thing! Luckily I know that you just have to clear all your cookies and start again to get the original price. But they must trick millions out of people that don't know how to do it.

I agree it is very annoying. I wonder how much money they make from it?

I have never heard of this

I hate the way they try to trick you into panic buying. I had to explain this to my mom today -- the price was literally DOUBLE what I was getting for the same flights!

I think Amazon do the same with books. I was thinking of buying one but decided to leave it.. Looked again a few days later and price had shot up but it was less when I looked on my friends phone later on same day

How do you clear cookies?

Use an incognito window.

support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464?hl=en-GB

Just browse incognito or clear your cookies. Voila.

Incidentally this also works for getting around a number of online newspaper 'x free articles a month then you pay'.

Clear cookies and/or internet history. You'll find prices are cheaper.

It actually doesn't happen very much. The systems aren't nearly as complicated as you think, plus its very easy to get around anyway.

It's called capitalism. Companies try to make the most money. This is not news.

But HOW do you clear cookies ?

Same goes for amazon...

Go to Settings-privacy-clear all cookies

(Browser settings that is)

It does happen a lot for flights! And the systems are obviously very complicated, I've worked on one.

Its not capatlism, its trying to panic people into buying. If prices in supermarkets went up the more you looked at something and different people were charged different prices people would be outraged.

It's not true, think about it, why would an airline put the price up a fake amount because you looked a second time,,,you don't really think they want you to say well that's too expensive, I shall just book with a competitor,
The Cookie Monster could only live in a market where there was no competition, airline travel is commoditised heavily, cheapest price wins most of the time, the thought that a given airline fakes a high price because you showed an interest is illogical, because if the price goes up, you shall just buy from someone else.

It was a conspiracy theory invented by someone who had no clue about air travel pricing and no clue about on line shopping or IT systems, just someone who saw something and then came up with a daft theory,

It's an urban myth isn't it?

Lol its very true. I'm planning all my holidays for the next 6 months it is 100% true that they do this.

No it's not true.
Price can fluctuate and it will depend on what seats are available in what fare buckets. It could go up if the lower fare bucket sells out and it can go down if demand is low and the airlines drops the price to incentivise sales. No way to tell which what it will go and at what moment,,,but it's nothing to do with your cookies.

I think they do it on IP address now rather than cookie? I used incognito and the prices were the same so the next day I connected via VPN and they were cheaper again. The IP is the address of your internet router in your house, usually

A useful tip I got was that they sometimes make the day you are searching for more expensive than the days either side of it, so say you want to go away on 10th, put 9th in as a search term then scroll through the later flights till you get to the 10th.

Whether this still works I don't know

it's definitely true that some companies change some variables based on data they collect about you as you connect

orbiz the travel agents used to do this

It isn't an urban myth. I've seen it happen, it's easy to check because as soon as you open the site in an incognito window, the price goes down again.

I didn't believe it either, until I checked it out. It's honestly true. You don't buy somewhere else, because you've already checked elsewhere and the difference between Ryanair (it's usually RA, let's face it!) and the next company is usually in double figures. When it goes up, due to their pricing model, you tut yourself, assuming you left it too late, and buy it quick before it goes up again.

Of course it isn't true! Why would airlines do it?

I book for groups several times a year and the prices which go up while I'm searching are the low-cost style ones where they have so many seats at such a price etc, once they've gone, the price goes up. (no shit Sherlock)

If it's true then it's odd that none of the consumer groups believe it, no?

But bridgets, you can see it happen AT THE SAME TIME. Nothing to do with price brackets.