How to get the lowest fares on low cost airlines - maybe.

[halfblind]

This was shown to me recently by my son who got the information from a friend in Bordeaux.

If you are looking on-line for cheap flights for arguments sake on Ryanair then you may get a quote of for example £40.

If you go off and look at another site (EasyJet?) and then return to the Ryanair site you may find that the cheapest seats are now £80.

Oh goodness I had better get them now because the cheap ones are going ! Hold on !

Apparently, and it is legal in France, the websites track your IP address and then when you return they hike the price. So if you disconnect your router (livebox or whatever) and then connect again you will get another IP address from your provider and if you then go back to the website you should be back to the original quoted price.

I have tried it, and it works - with the Ryanair site anyway - it may work with other sites for hotels etc. Worth a try. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

[Lehaut]

Could not the ferry companies do the same?

It must be legal in the UK too. The Telegraph limit you to 10 visits per month to the online paper. Presume they must keep a record of your IP address over a month period. If you exceed 10 visits, you cannot get on to the articles. HMA gets round it.

Good tip though.

[Théière]

That depends on whether your ISP uses a static or dynamic IP address.  Other wise it will just return to the same IP address no matter how many times you switch on and off.  It may well be worth emptying the cache and deleting cookies which are used far more by websites I believe to gather information on what you have been looking at and for how long.

I did try this several months back when the rumour began to circulate and despite returning to RA several times the flight still cost £12.00 each way inc fees.  More likely others are booking seats not window shopping and as the plane gets fuller the prices do then increase.

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Théière"]That depends on whether your ISP uses a static or dynamic IP address.  Other wise it will just return to the same IP address no matter how many times you switch on and off.  It may well be worth emptying the cache and deleting cookies which are used far more by websites I believe to gather information on what you have been looking at and for how long.[/quote]

It's a cookie issue.

I have a static IP address and if looking but not booking a Brittany Ferries crossing - or if I've read my allotted 20 free Telegraph articles per month - I either delete all cookies (which I do on a regular basis anyway) or just select and delete all Telegraph or BF cookies. It's the work of moments.

Aided by cookies, BF have been tracking booking enquiries like this for some time - months, maybe a year or more. If the ferries do it, I'm not at all surprised that the airlines employ the same revenue-enhancing trick. They're entitled to raise their prices of course, but they're not using my pc to help them increase their revenue.

If deleting cookies isn't something that someone wants to do, the other way around this quote price loading problem is to use a second browser. Firefox initially and then Chrome to book later, for eg.

[JandM]

Interesting. I always used to use two laptops when searching for flights - three or four if there were more to hand. It always turned out that when I used the same computer to check prices across a number of sites the quoted fare had increased when I returned (even if it was just a couple of minutes later). This didn't happen when returning to a site from a different computer - of course allowing for the point that prices might be rising because seats are selling.

Recently, however, I've discovered that just opening up multiple browsers on the same laptop does the same job, as long as the sites don't time out on you.

By the way, I'm probably way behind the curve on this, but I've just been looking for the first time at the new Ryanair site, following the recently announced love in with its passengers. Wow! What a difference.

I might even start to use them again.

[Chancer]

I surf the ferry prices for several days before booking at usually the last minute, I am confident that P&O, Eurotunnel, Myferrylink and DFDS dont do this, - yet!

Wouldnt really affect me as most of the time the cheapest for me is to (mis)use a 24 hour crossing and these are were often in the past a fixed promotional fare, that said at peak times they do go up as the bookings reach capacity, so I use my surfing of the one way tickets (which go up first) to see what the peak periods will be and to avoid them, I am lucky in that I can choose when to travel to get the cheapest deal.

[Judith]

[quote user="JandM"] I've just been looking for the first time at the new Ryanair site, following the recently announced love in with its passengers. Wow! What a difference.

I might even start to use them again.[/quote]

On the contrary, it has now become so complicated to use, that I dislike it entirely.  I don't use it enough to know it well, and last time I had real difficulty finding out how to cancel the travel insurance .... and I am presented with so many options for  hire car, booking in luggage etc that it is no longer simple to book with them.  Fortunately, I don't use them much any more.

This year I also had to book via Easyjet for the first time ever - and that was just as difficult, in an entirely different way, though  I still had the same sales pitch from them, and what is worse, continue to get emails from them (Easyjet) asking if I want hotels, or car hire.... which since I'm only using them to take another plane from the same airport (only reason for flying with them!), it is irritating to say the least!

[NormanH]

If you use Firefox in private window mode this should be avoidable..

It works with sites like the Telegraph

[Théière]

I don't believe so Norman, that just prevents storing a record of where you have been on your computer but the cookie still responds back to the website data file for marketing like Google analytics etc

[John Brown]

For me, the fact that you have to opt out of so many things with Bryanair is the most frustrating thing.

Once you've booked a few times you see how each item can be de-selected

Can they think we are dim enough to add things to our booking just because they are offered

( Don't answer that, I have ten RA Flight Bags [:D])

Its just a game that needs to be played if you want cheap flights

JB

[YCCMB]

On the "new " Ryanair site, which I visited for the first time today, it appears to me that the only thing you now have to opt out of is the travel insurance. Everything else is now on one page, and as long as you scroll through it without selecting any of the myriad extras proposed, you can simply proceed to your booking. You then have to opt IN to use a credit card, and you can see the cost of doing so quite clearly.

All in all, and maybe I'm in a minority, I find the new layout to be an improvement.

[John Brown]

You're right Betty, it is a big improvement it had to be because the old site was terrible, with so many bugs

I use Ryanair about 10 times a year with family visiting etc so its a bonus

Car hire still goes right up in price if you re-visit the site after finding your flights and getting a quote for car hire so try to book it on your first visit

[mrsblack]

Re car hire I just booked mine on the Bryanair (love that new name!) and Asia then scrolled down the page I saw a real cheapie "hidden" in the list of increasingly larger cars . So it is worth going right through the list . Also re the higher price when you go back to the site issue my son told me that if you leave it awhile you may get the original price . Of course he said they may well have sold lots more seats . He says different companies use different time frames so it's all a bit of a gamble or all part of the game.

[Chancer]

I do my own sort of demand pricing but dont have a computer to calculate and action it for me.

 

An appartement that takes up to 4 people is nominally €80, €100 or €120 dependant on whether its 2, 3 or 4, people, 1 person pays the same as a couple.

 

I have found that putting availability up a couple of months ahead I will get a initial rush of bookings at the full price, these tend to be longer stay guests, 3 and 4 nights which is great, within a month I may drop the prices by €20 dependant on how many nights remain unsold (weight listing for the Airlines) what availability there is with my competitors and now also their pricing, a week before I may have the odd one night remaining, often a Sunday so 24 hours before I will drop it another €10 and it is invariably snapped up often at the very last second.

 

Doing the exercise for next month, taking into consideration the availability and prices of the competition I have actually raised the prices by an additional €20 and if anything it has stimulated the bookings.

 

Customers can also win, with the new higher prices I knew that I had to adjust the incremental cost per person to €25 to remain competitive for the couples and single business travellers, I did that first and then increased the base price by €20, however in the few moments between the first and the second actions I recieved 2 réservations from business customers that were actioned at €70 down from the original €80 and which would have been €90 a few seconds later!

 

Good for them though, maybe they are using a computer algorithm!