Book a flight Unfortunately, this is a stressful part of a relaxing vacation. The internet is full of tips and tricks on how to reduce costs.One of the most common “tricks” is to use Stealth mode When searching for flights to get cheaper airfares. You’re not crazy for believing it, but it’s a huge myth.
“I’ve come to terms with the fact that this myth will still be widely believed until the day I die,” Going CEO Scott Keyes told Gizmodo since 2013. , who searches for cheap flights every day, so he likely knows if this trick works.
This myth stems from the use of biscuit, a very real tool that companies use to track everything you do online. It’s thought that airlines use cookies to track when you search for flights, and when they find out you actually want a flight, the airlines increase their prices. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of flight pricing.
Case said to look at how cookies are used elsewhere, citing jeans as an example. If you search “Levi’s” on Google, the company may send you some ads and even some discounts to convert you into a buyer. But Levi’s will never raise the price of jeans for you personally. With jeans, just like flights, the key is converting your interest into dollars.
But I know what you’re thinking: jeans and straight-leg pants are different, and you’re absolutely right. You need a flight, but you don’t need new jeans. Additionally, airlines have a long history of deceiving customers. What if airlines colluded and used cookies to drive up your prices across the board? Okay, once again I take off my conspiracy theorist hat.
Economists from Berkeley, Yale, and the University of Chicago recently studied a pricing algorithm unnamed major american airline. The study found that the overall booking of any particular flight affects the price, but your personal interests don’t have any impact. In fact, the study found that flight prices from other airlines did not affect the pricing algorithm either.
“Your search behavior almost certainly doesn’t affect anything,” Kevin Williams, a Yale University economist who worked on the study, said in an interview. “But if you book the last seat at the lowest price, you could be affecting other people’s flights.”
Consumer Reports researched this myth back in 2016, conducting 372 flight searches On both incognito and regular browsers. Incognito browsers generated cheaper flights about 7% of the time, but more expensive flights 5% of the time. 88% of the time, flight prices are exactly the same regardless of your cookies. There’s no conclusive evidence that cookies make flights more expensive. In some cases, these cookies may result in offers to you.
origin of myth
Before 1978, booking a flight was easy. You go to a travel agency, ask for flight information, and they look at a physical book that lists flat fees. Then they call the airline to make sure it’s available, and then you’re done. This is great, but flights are often very expensive.
In 1978, Congress passed “Airline Deregulation Act“This made airfares much cheaper, but also more complicated. Suddenly, the competition for the cheapest flights became more intense.
By the early 2000s, many flight booking sites such as Expedia and Kayak were launched, making the field extremely complex. Suddenly, instead of having a set price when buying a flight from New York to Los Angeles, there are dozens of options.
Fast forward to today, and airlines use dynamic pricing, changing flight prices throughout the day based on demand and many other factors. This makes changing ticket prices difficult to predict.
“I think this myth stems largely from the fact that airfare prices are incredibly volatile,” Case said. “It’s easy to associate volatility with something Truman Show I believe this is all because of you. “
Contrary to popular belief, airlines aren’t just focused on maximizing profits on everyone’s tickets. Loyal customers are important to airlines in the long run, as evidenced by luxurious lounges and frequent flyer perks. Economists find that these considerations are baked into their pricing algorithms. There are many factors that affect flight prices, but your search habits aren’t one of them.
why it is so common
The first reason this myth persists is that it is very believable that airlines are deceiving us in every way possible. We are very dependent on airlines and they certainly take advantage of that fact. They charge ridiculous amounts for basic necessities like food, water and basic legroom. Nowhere is the gap between rich and poor more evident than on an airplane. It’s not an easy thing to screw us up on fares.
Furthermore, we are used to companies using cookies to attack us. Social media companies cater to our insecurities while advertisers sell us our dreams. It makes sense that we group airlines with other unsavory companies.
Here’s what you can do to find the cheapest flights, according to the booking experts and economists I consulted while writing this article. The biggest factor is booking in advance. Ideally, start looking for summer vacations in the winter and winter vacations in the summer.
Otherwise, just shop around on different airlines and websites. If you’re really committed, keep an eye on flight prices in a few days. Whether you use stealth mode or not, a reasonably priced flight is likely the result of careful planning.