Deleting cookies to save money.

[paolo]

The other day I was reading some discussion about how to get the best prices on flights. A few people were claiming that it was best to clear your cookies, to avoid jacked up prices.

When I read this, I thought oh-yeah, that's BS.

Then I checked a flight price earlier. It had gone up by £400 since I checked yesterday. Then I tried another comparison site that I hadn't used before, and it was the normal price.

Feeling a bit suspicious, I deleted all cookies (and Flash data too). Hey presto, normal price resumed. I then googled, and it seems like quite a few retailers might be pulling a fast one, and not just for flights. Several reputable looking advice sites confirm this, as does some discussion amongst buyers.

We're being gamed. Even by price comparison sites that you might think are on the side of the consumer (Here's looking at *you* Skyscanner). Cheeky or what?

So, if you see an unexpected increase when you recheck prices, try deleting cookies (and Flash data too, to be sure).

 

[bi0boy]

I've always thought that even a single search for a specific flight might be enough to bump the price up, so I don't even bother searching until I'm ready to buy.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

It works for on-line auto insurance too. I thought I'd see if this particular insurance company would cancel me if I got into an accident so I went through their on-line quote system and pretended that I'd had an accident in the last three years. They denied me a quote and wouldn't until I'd cleared my cookies and tried it again with my real information.

 

[paolo]

The massive cheek here is that the real price of the flight hasn't changed. They're trying to get certain people to pay massively over the odds. And they make it look reputable too.

"Best price from Opodo is £x"

And yet when you go to Opodo directly, it's not been bumped up. And we're not talking a tenner or something. £400 increase based on my browsing history. Utter utter rip off merchants.

The more reputable airlines don't do this themselves, but no surprise to hear that Ryanair did/does it, and a big surprise to find out that Skyscanner does it. And they're clearly colluding with their partners for this too - click *through* to Opodo, and the massively inflated price remains. Cheeky fuckers.

 

[paolo]

It works for on-line auto insurance too. I thought I'd see if this particular insurance company would cancel me if I got into an accident so I went through their on-line quote system and pretended that I'd had an accident in the last three years. They denied me a quote and wouldn't until I'd cleared my cookies and tried it again with my real information.

Good to know (although tbf, in that case they are probably just trying to avoid being gamed themselves).

 

[fractionMan]

I guess one reason is they pay commission to anyone referring people to their sites. No cookies= no referrer = cheaper tickets.

 

[paolo]

I guess one reason is they pay commission to anyone referring people to their sites. No cookies= no referrer = cheaper tickets.

It's not that. This isn't about disabling cookies. It's about - effectively - resetting your history with the price comparison site. The commission element will still be there, the affiliate codes still go across to the ticket seller in the URL.

See if this makes it clearer:

For LHR-SFO return flights on specific dates, the price has consistently been around £500 on all price comparison websites.

After some period of regularly checking prices for this on Skyscanner, it started listing all fares as being £900 plus. That's a huuuuuuge increase. It claimed that underlying providers, e.g. Opodo, were quoting these prices, and clicking through it appeared that they were.

And yet, when I went to Opodo directly all fares were at the £500 level. And the same result happened on the other sites I tried too.

Think of like this. You walk into a car showroom, and there's a car that the salesman says is £5,000. After several days of going to this showroom, to look at this car repeatedly, you check the price again with this salesman, and he says "for you sir, ohh, erm, £9,000". The next day you go back wearing a disguise, ask again, and it's back to £5,000.

(Although it's worse than that, because in the case of something like Skyscanner, you'd expect them to be acting in your interest, not trying to artificially inflate fares based on your search behaviour).

 

[Ted Striker]

Does a browsers private mode have the same affect?

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

The more reputable airlines don't do this themselves, but no surprise to hear that Ryanair did/does it, and a big surprise to find out that Skyscanner does it. And they're clearly colluding with their partners for this too - click *through* to Opodo, and the massively inflated price remains. Cheeky fuckers.

except they do. How do you think these sites get access to sell the tickets...


Just like the gas and electricity price comparison sites all demand that x company give them y discounts to all their sign ups or they'll get pushed down in the rankings meaning less sign up revenue...

Less churn as it's called (people switching services) is considered a bad thing for their profitability...


Really are you that surprised how did you think these sites funded themselves or paid their staff??

 

[paolo]

Does a browsers private mode have the same affect?

Aha yes, that should work, and will be easier. Not sure about other browsers, but Chrome's 'Incognito' mode also removes Flash cookies too, so it should be fairly bulletproof.

 

[paolo]

Until recently, I worked in Energy price comparison - for about 18 months.

It's a set commission. Depending on tarriff, it'll be between £25-£50 - equivelent to up to 5% of first year spend. It's not priced on your personal search behaviour, not cookies, none of that. It's a modest fixed fee.

Reputable comparison companies also comply with watchdog Consumer Focus' directions regarding presenting results fairly, which means they must be presented in order of best price, including all the tariffs, with nothing hidden or bumped down the rankings - even if the tariff isn't available directly from that comparison site.

Not only does energy comparison not make individual inflations of prices for specific customers, there is no technical mechanism for it do that. The energy companies pay flat commissions - there isn't a way for the comparison site to arbitrarily say "Charge Garf double for his electricity, because we want a bigger commission".

Trust me, this isn't about commissions. Energy comparison is *very* profitable just working from low, flat, commissions.

What I'm describing here is 'tailoring' prices based on previous search behaviour.

except they do. How do you think these sites get access to sell the tickets...


Just like the gas and electricity price comparison sites all demand that x company give them y discounts to all their sign ups or they'll get pushed down in the rankings meaning less sign up revenue...

Less churn as it's called (people switching services) is considered a bad thing for their profitability...


Really are you that surprised how did you think these sites funded themselves or paid their staff??

[/quote]

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Until recently, I worked in Energy price comparison - for about 18 months.

It's a set commission. Depending on tarriff, it'll be between £25-£50 - equivelent to up to 5% of first year spend. It's not priced on your personal search behaviour, not cookies, none of that. It's a modest fixed fee.

Reputable comparison companies also comply with watchdog Consumer Focus' directions regarding presenting results fairly, which means they must be presented in order of best price, including all the tariffs, with nothing hidden or bumped down the rankings - even if the tariff isn't available directly from that comparison site.

Not only does energy comparison not make individual inflations of prices for specific customers, there is no technical mechanism for it do that. The energy companies pay flat commissions - there isn't a way for the comparison site to arbitrarily say "Charge Garf double for his electricity, because we want a bigger commission".

Trust me, this isn't about commissions. Energy comparison is *very* profitable just working from low, flat, commissions.

What I'm describing here is 'tailoring' prices based on previous search behaviour.

mate I used to work for CF trust me we were and they still are forever investigating uswitch/compare the market and a number of others for specific threats made to energy companies and specific instances of discounted prices needing to be offered in order for certain suppliers to receive prominence, indeed uswtich and others have been fined for it previously.

Not knocking your experiences, however you're wrong...

 

[paolo]

Looks like our experiences differ.

I've just googled "uswitch fined" - nothing. Nothing for Go Compare or Money Supermarket either.

That's not to say that haven't been pulled back into line by CF, but the thing I'm talking about here is *not* commission, it's tailoring prices on the fly for specific customers based on their search history.

 

[Ted Striker]

Didn't Amazon famously do it a long time ago then decided against it?

 

[paolo]

Didn't Amazon famously do it a long time ago then decided against it?

I've read several anecdotal reports of them doing it, from a few years back. Along with play.com, Ryanair and a few others.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Looks like our experiences differ.

I've just googled "uswitch fined" - nothing. Nothing for Go Compare or Money Supermarket either.

That's not to say that haven't been pulled back into line by CF, but the thing I'm talking about here is *not* commission, it's tailoring prices on the fly for specific customers based on their search history.

For each sale no but for the percentile of contracts sold by comparison to say the other competitor products in the market (think SP being favored more than say BGT for example) offer prices not being compared with the same tariffs across the board...

 

[paolo]

I've no doubt there's been some shenanigans like that, which is why CF are hot on it, but that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about "Garf looks really keen on this flight, so let's double *his* price". It was a £400 increase on a £500 flight, in my case.

For each sale no but for the percentile of contracts sold by comparison to say the other competitor products in the market (think SP being favored more than say BGT for example) offer prices not being compared with the same tariffs across the board...

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

I've no doubt there's been some shenanigans like that, which is why CF are hot on it, but that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about "Garf looks really keen on this flight, so let's double *his* price". It was a £400 increase on a £500 flight, in my case.

oh right no then...

there has been some give us a 24% discount on what offers we sell from our site or we'll rubbish you in the press however...

 

[weltweit]

Good to know, and thanks for sharing.

My Ex always complains that flights abroad start going up pretty much as soon as they start looking at them.

Perhaps we can save a few quid. One back for the little guy !!