Airlines ABSOLUTELY change their prices if you repeatedly check routes to a city. I have watched them change by over $100 over a few hours a day when contemplating a trip using their flight searches.
I now do all the flight route and time checking with a browser private window, no location being served, and VPN with an exit far from where I am, then use a phone on a cellular network to do any booking or vice versa in order to prevent tracking or some sort of identifying hash they might grab.
It’s such a cheapass scam to basically gouge a customer based on interest.
does this apply to Skyscanner (app)
No idea, I don’t use it.
JetBlue is hardly the first airline to fall into the limelight for potentially changing its prices based on a user’s browser history.
The Federal Trade Commission has studied surveillance pricing methods since 2024, and found retailers often used people’s personal information to set individualized pricing information. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said he “directed staff to start examining” if new disclosure rules are needed by companies during a Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month.
or, OR… We could ban the fuckery
Not likely under Trump sadly
Not surprised. Always book tickets in private browsing, preferably with a VPN. Expect to get upcharged otherwise.
In countries that are not the US, they just don’t stand for that shit and make it illegal.
You’re not wrong, but we don’t all have the capability to move to another country, for both legal and financial reasons.
We’re not saying Americans should move somewhere else; we’re saying Americans (collectively) need to fix their broken ass country, looking at others for inspiration.
Easier said than done OFC.
It’s easier to move
I am going to vote unlike millions of Americans who don’t
They say you can’t be arrested for anything you do in a voting booth. There’s a dude who smokes a joint every election as a protest and to prove a point. I plan to just sit down and cry when I get my turn in the booth.
Ideally that would be the case but there’s non-US countries that also have this shit unfortunately.
Good ol doug fraud, screwing Ontario at every chance. At least his buddies are doing fine… Wish this province would realize how bad the con(artist)s for our future
Those are good tips. Be aware though that they have multiple ways of tracking you (like screen size) and if you have a unique flight (e.g. departing from Boston arriving in Gary, IN on 4/29. Return on 5/5), they can figure it out.
Good on that JetBlue employee for showing a level of empathy. They were probably fired for it, but at least they went out with a bang.
I am going to run for Congress in 2028, and my entire platform is going to be built around making it legal to Luigi corrupt people and burn down corrupt businesses.
This shit is not going to stop until we get bloody.
My answer to this is always “I opened an incognito window, effectively the same thing”
that’s a cool website that I’ll never be able to read
I haven’t had this happen to me with European airlines I think. Is there maybe some law forcing them to keep steady prices? From what I’ve seen (though I don’t fly that often) prices don’t really fluctuate and just rise with more demand, with some last minute tickets going for pennies.
If you check on a flight regularly it will show you a different price. That increase you are seeing is your own interest raising it.
Never accept cookies, use blockers
My dumb ass just realised that I haven’t accepted cookies from airlines or skyscanner ever since I was an adult so maybe that’s why lol
I have always heard of this but thought it was an urban legend. I’ve never seen my flights change price after I looked them up more than once. And I always check first with Skyscanner and then search those flights with my browser and find them at the same price. Does this actually happen in Europe? Or is it illegal here?
Living in Europe now and we’ve not seen it too much but while in USA yeah we needed a flight from Dallas to NYC and it went from $150 to $600 after I was clicking in to buy it. We just waited a day and bought a $200 flight from another company
I still haven’t figured out if Google’s flight search forwards view data similar to checking on the actual airline’s website because I’ve definitely seen price hikes occur in realtime, but I can’t tell if that’s because of constant rechecks close to the flight date, or just the static algorithm increasing the price as the flight date approaches.
Otherwise I’m kind of skeptical of how they allow Google to use such data and present it for free.
