Imagine you are on a shopping website or on a travel booking website and you see a deal which is quite exciting and your try and book, either you login with your account on the website or if you proceed to pay it gives a pop up, “Oops” price just got up by x amount and you end up paying the higher price which turns out to be a deep hole on your pocket.
The reason that amount YOU will be charged is due to a complex formula based on the condition of other items you've bought or the last travel booking(s) you done in past, how much you've spent on shoes in the past and what you're likely to spend for holiday this time?
Think that couldn't happen? Some say it already is. And consumer advocates warn that the world's airlines want to codify and legalize such practices, so that soon every flight you book will be personally priced just for you.
This practice is commonly known as “The Dynamic Pricing”, it has multiple definitions. For example, nearly all travelers know they'll pay more for peak times when booking flights, trains, buses, rental cars, hotel rooms, cruises and theme parks. Such yield-management practices exist in dozens of industries with "distressed inventory," In fact, many sports games now alter the cost of admission on a game-by-game basis; they simply "adjust ticket prices upward or downward on a daily basis based on changing factors such as team performance, pitching matchups, weather and ticket demand."
Is this a legal or is this allowed the answer is grey, the search engine does the job for these travel and shopping sites and not to mention YOU give all the rights to do so.
Yet yield management is one thing, provided it's applied fairly to all consumers. But price refinement is another matter, when different customers are charged isolated rates for the same merchandises or service at the same time. The law forbids discrimination in pricing, even though exceptions are made all the time for factors such as discounts for children, senior citizen, students, or a promotional offer etc. and not to forget the "ladies' nights" have come under fire as a form of discrimination.
What worries many industry observers is a company charging different prices based on an individual's characteristics or buying history. There is strong evidence this occurs regularly. And while it's important to note that such practices can be imposed offline environment as well, the Internet has driven such capabilities into the stratosphere
How this happens? Let’s discuss this in detail
The attorney Robert M. Weiss is an expert on this topic, and back in 2001 he published a paper detailing how airlines and travel sites can use technological tools to perfect "online micro-marketing":
- Computer cookies that track past interactions
- Click-stream technology that discerns how users arrive at a given site, and what other sites they visit before and after
- Databases that store a "vast amount of information" on previous purchases
Weiss summarized: "With this enhanced technology, online companies have the potential power to use an unprecedented amount of consumer information in tailoring their pricing strategies."
Tips which may help you for next time
- When it comes to travel, don't be an impulsive shopper. More than ever, it's critical that you shop around, and view fares on more than one site. And if you find a price on a third-party travel site, make sure you visit that airline's own branded site as well, to see if there's a lower fare.
- When shopping online, use more than one browser, or more than one computer if possible. As the IP from which the website is opened is tracked and system is too smart to capture the same
- Try and trick the website by entering different dates or random dates in search, when you flip the dates too much the algorithm gets stuck and may get you a lower price on your travel dates
- Clear your web history completely, using chrome then don’t sign in and search on these sites, logout and then try and attempt
- Switch off the Google suggestions while doing search.
- If searching from smart #ph switch off the location and GPS tracking and do the mention points
- Logout from all of your Social Media accounts Facebook, Twitter etc. as this helps the algorithm to pick the likes reviews, any images you posted related to the product or service you want to buy.
- Do not increase your response time on deciding the deal, do the decision making before. The moment you on the articular deal the response time is getting clocked and more time you spend more you end up paying ex: like the pop up get “Oops” price just got increased.
- Beware travel sites that state your personal information will be "held" or "shared" or "sold."
- NEVER book travel through a site that does not have a posted privacy policy or offers non-working links.
Try these I am sure you will a pro and will get the maximum out of your deals
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