Beware - Different prices for same search!!

Lucyfr

Hi guys,

I am really cottoning on recently to companies wildly varying holiday prices depending on whether you have been to their website before and have cookies from previous searches.

I searched for the same holiday on lowcostholidays.com a day later and the hotel price had shot up £100. Suspicious I decided to try the search out on a different computer browser (around £1170 each), a mobile browser (about £1,400 each), their app (around £1,350 each) and the Orbot browser (around £1,250 each)!!! Wow... That's a potential saving of £250 based on where I searched for it and whether I had before.

I tried this with National Express as I had searched the first time for a return trip (£15 first leg, £17 second leg) but decided to wait for prices to fall by checking out prices 1 and 2 weeks in advance. 1 and 2 weeks in advance and ticket prices were showing at £5 and under. I checked these prices repeatedly for a week and all were at a stable £15-17 as the website must have cottoned on that I want those dates! I decided to see whether they were price fixing by trying it with someone next to me and sure enough their search was £6 per ticket cheaper for same trip! National Express used to lower their tickets over time based on seat capacity, I have been using them many years but recently have seen their prices go up for tickets I had my eye on.

I am now in a position where I am going to have to find a way to change my search identity, possibly using an IP from India and others to get the best prices!

pogofish

So what is the bargain here?

daveypoos

cookies

Do some googling

The top of ie to the right is an icon that looks like a gear
Click on that and select internet options from the menu

Click delete in the browsing history section and you will see an option for cookies.

Downside is it can wipe out stuff you want.

Alternative open ie then to ctrl-shift-p for so an inprivate browser pops up, do the search and the price should go down again.

savvy

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callum9999

Does it still do that now? If so can you give specific routes and days?

You certainly seem convinced but these accusations have been made for years and years, and I'm not aware of a single person ever demonstrating it.