An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:26:03 GMT

vrek@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:26:03 GMT

@ZDL @CStamp yup, I've heard similar stories from other places.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:23:34 GMT

apenkop@mstdn.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:23:34 GMT

@WeirdWriter @CStamp That's so bad. Just squeezing their customer base until there's nothing left. That's how capitalism works.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:18:46 GMT

zdl@mstdn.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:18:46 GMT

@vrek @CStamp When friends visit me here, they invariably search for the flight that meets their needs, schedule and service wise, then give me the information and I buy it from inside China.

It's typically half the price. Sometimes less.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:11:02 GMT

pmdj@mstdn.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:11:02 GMT

@luckychronic @kkarhan @CStamp I guess I should qualify that we tend to fly with Lufthansa Group (LH, Austrian, Swiss) or if we have to, Ryanair, because they happen to fly relevant routes and minimise flight km for our location. We've also recently booked flights with various Asian airlines (inc budget) & didn't notice anything weird going on with their prices either.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:10:37 GMT

the5thcolumnist@ottawa.place — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:10:37 GMT

@CStamp

Just a reminder of something I think about every time I se a Trivago ad. Why do hotels offer the same rooms at different prices on different websites. Why do customers put up with it. And shouldn't the lowest price be on the hotel's website which would encourage customers to go there first.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:09:57 GMT

weirdwriter@caneandable.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:09:57 GMT

Amtrak does this too. @apenkop @CStamp

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:03:55 GMT

pmdj@mstdn.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:03:55 GMT

@luckychronic @kkarhan @CStamp The prices also don't change when logged into the airline website vs not, or on different devices. My wife (not logged in) will sometimes find a specific flight at a particular price on the iPad, and I can log in with my account on the desktop and get the same price for the same itinerary.
One thing that can mess it up: search for price for 1 person, then actually try to book for N>1 pax. (If # tickets at that price is

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:58:47 GMT

pmdj@mstdn.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:58:47 GMT

@luckychronic @kkarhan @CStamp FWIW, I've never seen this happen when booking from Austria. I mean, sure, airline pricing is confusing. But there is a certain number of seats at each price, and people will buy them. And the available seats for each price tend to get recalculated/re-allocated once a week. But outside of that, the prices quoted for the same itinerary won't change. (Close to the flight date with few seats left it can of course sell out quickly.)

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:36:54 GMT

chefx@defcon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:36:54 GMT

@kkarhan @luckychronic @CStamp @Bundesverband It's definitely happening in Germany, try booking Ryanair or KLM/Air-France

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:35:54 GMT

chefx@defcon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:35:54 GMT

@kkarhan @CStamp I have no idea if it's actually illegal here, but it's not stopping a single airline from doing it. Everybody does it.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:29:37 GMT

kraemer_hb@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:29:37 GMT

@utrenkner @david_chisnall @coba @CStamp What a company perceives in searches for a train or flight connection seems to be a need for transportation.
Consumers feel ripped of if their need drives prices higher.
They pay only if they are willing to.
I argue that markets and prices are not as transparent as in ideal models. Neither are needs, the need for transportation is embedded in a fuzzy conglomerate of other needs it is weighed against.
The need for an Apple is not the need for a PC.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:13:22 GMT

suedioh@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:13:22 GMT

@CStamp Yes the airlines have been doing this for some time now. I use DuckDuckGo as my browser and search for cheapest flights through Kayak or similar, then book my flight on the airline's website.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:11:54 GMT

utrenkner@mastodon.green — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:11:54 GMT

@Kraemer_HB
Coupons, bonus programs etc. are not directly connected to my "willingness to pay".

@coba mentioned "apple used to be more expensive because people buying apple products have more money." And this is how I understood this discussion: Should the company be allowed to differentiate the price based on the (perceived) willingness to pay of an individual.

@david_chisnall @coba @CStamp

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:06:07 GMT

filipslusarski@techhub.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:06:07 GMT

@yoshimura @CStamp Higher demand means tickets can be sold even with the higher price.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:05:45 GMT

kraemer_hb@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:05:45 GMT

@utrenkner @david_chisnall @coba @CStamp In reality, the "uniform price" from the example (150€) would be changed by coupons, discounts, bonus programs, premium versions ("1st class"), bundles and so on, differentiating the price as well as the product.
Hard to argue why that must conform to a model for financial markets instead, where needs are only present in form of searches for investment opportunities.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:53:56 GMT

utrenkner@mastodon.green — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:53:56 GMT

@david_chisnall
Furthermore, I do not agree that price discrimination is bad per se ("predatory").

E.g. if you have only 10 seats left for a certain train connection, the uniform price per seat might be 150 EUR. For the train company it may be financially beneficial to sell 8 tickets at 150 and to keep two tickets unsold.

But they might have fulfilled more people's transportation needs by selling the remaining two tickets to someone who would afford only 100 EUR.

@Kraemer_HB @coba @CStamp

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:43:22 GMT

utrenkner@mastodon.green — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:43:22 GMT

@david_chisnall
I know what you mean, but it's really not that economists do not view or analyse markets such as I was describing them. They would explain to you, that there is a demand curve that goes down with higher prices and a supply curve that goes up with increasing prices. The market price is at the intersection of the two. This is how e.g. the price of stock is found at the stock market.

@Kraemer_HB @coba @CStamp

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:39:10 GMT

kraemer_hb@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:39:10 GMT

@david_chisnall @coba @CStamp Sure, you talk about markets that are functional, desirable and creating a fair price.
It's more a normative model that economists described in the past two centuries, especially applicable to financial markets, dealing in goods that are abstract from the real world, financial instruments.
When real markets don't fit to the model some people demand that the state intervenes. But that's a question of power.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:32:28 GMT

dmtomas@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:32:28 GMT

@luckychronic @kkarhan @CStamp @Bundesverband you can exploit this too - about 10 min before I need to go I start checking bolt and uber and then stop and give algorithm some time to give me the best price;)

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:27:42 GMT

shulim@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:27:42 GMT

@CStamp Thanks for the tip!

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:12:17 GMT

pl@cosocial.ca — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:12:17 GMT

@CStamp better tip: turn JS, caching and cookies off so you don't get fucked.

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:03:05 GMT

edendestroyer@solarpunk.moe — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:03:05 GMT

@CStamp hope the social media intern that replied that is safe

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:01:56 GMT

yoshimura@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:01:56 GMT

@coba @CStamp why not have a fixed price for a ticket?

Reply to An FYI to folk booking tickets online: if you notice price jumps between the first time you look and when you are ready to book, delete cache and empty cookies. on Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:00:19 GMT

yoshimura@mastodon.social — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:00:19 GMT

@filipslusarski @CStamp what is wrong about having a fixed price for a flight?