Because the majority of us like traveling, we are always on the lookout for methods to save money on airline tickets. Whenever we want to travel and explore the globe, we search for seat sales, promotions, and off-holiday lower tickets. However, this is not the optimal method for obtaining discounted airline tickets. The majority of us are unaware of the factors that influence ticket pricing and how online travel companies justify their ticket rates.
Travel companies can track you, the time you visited their website, and so on. This is also why they change their rates based on the information they have about you; this is referred to as “price steering.” The following is a summary of the types of information they may get as a result of the traces you leave on your browser.
Your Operating System
When you connect to a website, your browser transmits to a user agent. The user agent is a string or line of text that identifies the browser and operating system you are currently using. This information is complemented with the kind of device you are using, whether it is a laptop, a PC, or a mobile device.
Internet protocol address
This is the most fundamental method of identifying you. When linked to the internet, each gadget has its own unique address. This provides websites with your location information, but not down to the street level, but rather the city or region in which you are situated.
Cookies
This refers to the tiny bits of information about your activities that websites store on your browser. If a website wants to learn about the pages you visit, it may do so via the use of cookies. Therefore, if you sign a contract with an online travel agency and request rates, it will be obvious that you are comparing their costs to those of other agencies.
Your mobile device’s GPS
This method determines your position by conducting a computation between the satellite and the GPS receiver on your mobile device. This is when the travel agency differentiates the prices it offers you based on your location.
Wireless Network
When linked to a public network, your information cannot be secured. Through the network you are using, the website you visit may identify your location.
Geo-location
This is a dynamic mapping technique that allows the HTML5 application to find you in real-time. For instance, there are online taxicab apps that assist in locating passengers and determining the best routes to travel. Additionally, travel companies utilize this to identify prospective customers and offer them prices based on their location.
And, since we are searching for alternative means of obtaining lower flight prices, we must test the following alternatives and compare the results to the rates obtained via more conventional techniques.
It is preferable to use your phone
Online travel sites often offer special discounts to customers who search on their mobile devices. As you have read, they are doing customer profiling. Also, since they can monitor the device you’re using, they can determine the kind of gadget you’re using to access their site and adjust the charges accordingly.
Incognito mode
Using this option in your browser will provide you with a more private browsing experience. All browsers have this kind of option, which stops the browser from storing your browsing history. Travel websites may monitor your actions, which is why utilizing this method of browsing conceals your past and prevents them from determining which website you visited before to theirs.
Cookies are tiny pieces of information
As stated before, you may utilize incognito mode or clear your cookies before accessing the trip website. Because your browser history is evaluated when a travel agency website offers you prices, you should remove your cookies first.
Utilize a Virtual Private Network to browse
VPNs function because they encrypt your connection and mask your true location. The website is unaware of your location and simply displays the area of your choosing. You’re better off choosing low-income areas or the region where the airline is located.
Utilize a VPN to access international websites
Additionally, travel websites vary their prices based on the website’s origin. Rather than surfing from a local website, attempt to access foreign sites through a VPN to conceal your IP address.
Now is the moment to adapt our ways and attempt new things to get some of the things we want, such as lower travel prices. These very simple technical suggestions may suffice. You should experiment with these choices and compare them to the standard browsing technique. And before you have second thoughts about the legality, we are pleased to inform you that purchasing flights through a VPN is entirely legal when using a different location than your true one.