How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight • Hacker News Board

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#11

Post by harryh » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 10:44 PM UTC

001sky wrote: post #10

The price descrimination that the airlines do is so opaque and manipulative, this is exactly why one needs to be cognizant of the technicals. We are really only a single logical step removed from a pretty bad place (read: racist/sexist/elitist, etc) with this teqnique to dynamic pricing and (essentially) ... front-running.[1] For example, we can charge black people more (based on zip-code demographics) to discourage…

How is there front running when there are only two parties in the transaction?

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#12

Post by monksy » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 10:49 PM UTC

I do not work for Kayak. However, I believe that this may be due to the sale's city of the ticket. This is typically to encourage discounts in specific cities. When tickets are issued one aspect of the ticket is that it has a "sales location"

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#13

Post by joelrunyon » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 10:51 PM UTC

alexhutcheson wrote: post #8

Does source IP address make a difference when searching fares on ITA Software's Matrix[1]? To my knowledge, ITA Software is where Kayak and many of the other booking sites get their data, so it's normally what I use when searching for flights. Since they don't actually sell tickets, I've always assumed I'm seeing "neutral" results, but now I'm curious. [1] http://matrix.itasoftware.com

Google bought out itasoftware so I'm not going to assume that it's completely neutral, but I have consistently seen the best deals come through that. I don't even bother using Kayak anymore as the "calendar" function on itasoftware is so much more useful for someone like me with a relatively flexible schedule on most of my trips.

I can't confirm, but I assume from personal experience that kayak increases prices on flights as you search for the same flight multiple times.

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#14

Post by jw2 » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 10:56 PM UTC

The difference is southwest. I think Southwest is not offered as an option on the US side but apparently is if booking from outside the US.

I just checked Southwest's website and the same flight is offered for $255.00 round trip.

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#15

Post by testaccount4 » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 11:00 PM UTC

>(BTW, I use the VPN to mask my internet traffic… sorry NSA).

>BTGuard

>

>mfw

oh hackernews..

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#16

Post by btn » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 11:01 PM UTC

alexhutcheson wrote: post #8

Does source IP address make a difference when searching fares on ITA Software's Matrix[1]? To my knowledge, ITA Software is where Kayak and many of the other booking sites get their data, so it's normally what I use when searching for flights. Since they don't actually sell tickets, I've always assumed I'm seeing "neutral" results, but now I'm curious. [1] http://matrix.itasoftware.com

No, your IP has no effect; by default, you're seeing prices as if they were booked from the departure city.

Matrix lets you specify the the "sales city" (the last field in the advanced search options), which allows you to check out price discrimination by location.

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#17

Post by TillE » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 11:04 PM UTC

testaccount4 wrote: post #15

>(BTW, I use the VPN to mask my internet traffic… sorry NSA). >BTGuard > >mfw oh hackernews..

BTGuard is based in Canada and they have a strict policy of not keeping logs. What's your point?

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#18

Post by ChrisBland » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 11:05 PM UTC

harryh wrote: post #11

001sky wrote: post #10

The price descrimination that the airlines do is so opaque and manipulative, this is exactly why one needs to be cognizant of the technicals. We are really only a single logical step removed from a pretty bad place (read: racist/sexist/elitist, etc) with this teqnique to dynamic pricing and (essentially) ... front-running.[1] For example, we can charge black people more (based on zip-code demographics) to discourage…

How is there front running when there are only two parties in the transaction?

Not front running the traditional sense, what I believe they are referring to is when you search for a flight, then come back and search it again and its gone up by $80 since they know you are interested in that destination but didnt book it last time.

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#19

Post by saryant » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 11:06 PM UTC

jcutrell wrote: post #7

This sounds quite familiar to the manipulation Orbitz did in 2012 based on the user's reported operating system: http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/06/25/orbitz_displaying_...

Not really. Kayak is using geolocation to detect the sales country. Airline tickets have always had different prices depending on the country of purchase.

Re: How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

#20

Post by testaccount4 » Wed, Jan 22, 2014, 11:10 PM UTC

TillE wrote: post #17

testaccount4 wrote: post #15

>(BTW, I use the VPN to mask my internet traffic… sorry NSA). >BTGuard > >mfw oh hackernews..

BTGuard is based in Canada and they have a strict policy of not keeping logs. What's your point?

if you're using PPTP with BTGuard -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWXP3DvH8OQ

even if you're not, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryp...