Well, this is cute.
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@pluralistic @energisch_ this can easily be explained: the URL doesn't have the Google Flights referral. That might be stored in a cookie or in their database and you have a session ID. Countercheck with a private browser windows in Firefox.
@chx @energisch_ I confess that I'm baffled by the ardor to find an alternative explanation. The major airlines routinely boast of their surveillance pricing plans and programs. The people who develop, consult on and manage loyalty programs brag that frequent customers don't notice when prices go up. AC has a monopoly on the route.
The same URL in two browsers, one logged in, and one not, produces a 25% premium price for the logged in session.
Occam's razor applies.
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@chx @energisch_ I confess that I'm baffled by the ardor to find an alternative explanation. The major airlines routinely boast of their surveillance pricing plans and programs. The people who develop, consult on and manage loyalty programs brag that frequent customers don't notice when prices go up. AC has a monopoly on the route.
The same URL in two browsers, one logged in, and one not, produces a 25% premium price for the logged in session.
Occam's razor applies.
@chx @energisch_ Even if you stipulate that (for some incoherent reason) Air Canada offers discounts to Google Flights users, that is *still price discrimination against its frequent fliers.*
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
"In capitalism, loyalty never goes unpunished."
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@chx @energisch_ Even if you stipulate that (for some incoherent reason) Air Canada offers discounts to Google Flights users, that is *still price discrimination against its frequent fliers.*
@pluralistic @energisch_ alas, this is a case of incompetence not malice. They offer a special fare for certain OTAs and the department arranging that fare didn't coordinate with the very very disjoint department who handles frequent fliers. Not sure whether this makes sense. I am merely saying Air Canada is incompetent and not malicious. But they are *very* incompetent there's no doubt.
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A coworker in sales told me that he always uses private mode to shop for flights/travel. Something to do with cookies talking to each other that ratchets up the prices.
@angela_underscore @pluralistic I've read that if you leave and come back a few times that the price will go up. Private/anonymous would likely help with that along with clearing cache and cookies.
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
Airlines have really made an art of taking this magical human achievement of flying through the air and bogging it down with as much shit as they can shovel until it's viewed as an extremely unpleasant chore.
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@pluralistic @energisch_ alas, this is a case of incompetence not malice. They offer a special fare for certain OTAs and the department arranging that fare didn't coordinate with the very very disjoint department who handles frequent fliers. Not sure whether this makes sense. I am merely saying Air Canada is incompetent and not malicious. But they are *very* incompetent there's no doubt.
@chx @energisch_ You have enormous confidence that this airline, a monopolist, on a route where it has a monopoly, which has already boasted of its algorithmic pricing and its ability to do first-order price discrimination, an industry-wide trend boasted of by the vendors hired to do this, is not doing this, entirely on the basis of some a priori assumptions for which you have offered zero evidence.
Do you work in AC ops?
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That one can be explained away to some extent by being closer to the estimated date, and therefore something something cost of opportunity.
Sorry, I said 'explained' when I meant 'excused'. These companies will feed everyone a line of bullshit when pushed on their practices. It might even be human bullshit and not machine-generated artificial bullshit, with 30% microplastics.
@theogrin @pluralistic it happens in a matter of a day or two!
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@hub Loyalty is not treasured any longer, true. Our internet provider offers far better conditions for new customers than for old one. We decided to quit our contract.
A day later we got the same deal as a new customer
@Ehay2k @pluralistic@energisch_
I have a streaming contact with TSN in Canada. Every year, i cancel it in November. No refunds. Then, for black Friday, they offer a deal to new customers only. I qualify as a new customer even with the same email address and account already on file. It's usually a 40 % discount.
@hub @Ehay2k @pluralistic -
Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
@pluralistic but it's such a pain to sign into one's Air Canada account anyway, can't do it accidentally...
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@chx @energisch_ I confess that I'm baffled by the ardor to find an alternative explanation. The major airlines routinely boast of their surveillance pricing plans and programs. The people who develop, consult on and manage loyalty programs brag that frequent customers don't notice when prices go up. AC has a monopoly on the route.
The same URL in two browsers, one logged in, and one not, produces a 25% premium price for the logged in session.
Occam's razor applies.
@pluralistic @chx @energisch_ Besides whether logged in or not, check browser capabilities: firefox can be configured to delete cookies when you close firefox. Other browsers might not do that. Also, see if you get a different price when using a laptop at a coffee shop, possibly trying different towns. Maybe there is a surcharge if your Internet connection is physically located in a "high rent district".
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
@pluralistic I always go through a 3rd party search site like google or skyscanner. That's where they have to provide their lowest rates to stay competitive.
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@energisch_
I have a streaming contact with TSN in Canada. Every year, i cancel it in November. No refunds. Then, for black Friday, they offer a deal to new customers only. I qualify as a new customer even with the same email address and account already on file. It's usually a 40 % discount.
@hub @Ehay2k @pluralistic@human3500 Isn't it funny?
@hub @Ehay2k @pluralistic -
Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
@pluralistic Everybody knows that seats cost airlines more to service when you use Chromium. It makes them heavier, require more fuel to get off the ground.
Airlines are efficient private companies operating in a vibrant and competitive free market environment. I trust they only mark up prices to cover their costs.
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Yet another level of #enshittification :
Provide customer loyalty benefits to help secure your very best customers, then turn the tables and screw them for that very same loyalty.
@Ehay2k looking at the Air Canada Aeroplan Chase credit card perks proverbially flying away right now... I hate it.
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
@pluralistic Sounds about right. bunch of crooks!
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
@pluralistic WHAT
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
Well, "loyalty" programmes do not exist because companies are nice...
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Well, this is cute. I looked up an #AirCanada flight in Firefox and then pasted the URL into a Chromium window where I was logged into my Aeroplan Super-Elite account. Air Canada added $300 to the flight price when I tried to load it from a logged-in browser. Hell of a customer loyalty perk!
I bought the ticket in my non-logged-in window, then added my FF number to it.
#capitalism, fuck yeah!
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@pluralistic
Surveillance pricing in stores is just capitalism doing in person what it has been doing online for years.@TheGreatLlama @pluralistic Big companies that own brick-and-mortar stores have wanted to do surveillance pricing or algorithmically driven pricing for decades, since before there was a formal term for it. I first read about the concept in the early 2000s but IIRC it’s older than that.
They just didn’t have the technology until now.
