51–60 of 127 posts
I've often hacked Kayak by booking flights to other destinations with a stopover at the place I want to go. It's bizarre, but yes, they're sometimes cheaper. "opaque and manipulative" indeed.
†http://www.kayak.com/news/a-new-way-to-find-deals-on-flights...
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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.
This technique goes back long before the Internet. I recall working in a computer store where it was a standard practice to give someone a quote with an expiry date, and if they missed the time limit extra money would be tacked on with some made-up BS excuse (We sold out of Foobars and the new shipment came in at a higher price). It was the exact same reasoning: The customer walked away, shopped around, and came back…
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Be prepared to be blocked. Each search on a site like Kayak costs money, and if a bunch of searches are being done automatically it will lower the conversion rate, which meta-search sites and their partners watch closely and care deeply about.
I doubt a search a day would even show on the radar
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This technique goes back long before the Internet. I recall working in a computer store where it was a standard practice to give someone a quote with an expiry date, and if they missed the time limit extra money would be tacked on with some made-up BS excuse (We sold out of Foobars and the new shipment came in at a higher price). It was the exact same reasoning: The customer walked away, shopped around, and came back…
Pull that trick on me and I'd go a mile out of my way not to give you business any more. And I wouldn't be alone. Punishment of cheaters and exploiters is a human social instinct.
tldr - lucky "hacker"
No. I work for an OTA (not Kayak). First of all airlines file their fare rules and OTAs don't change the prices, and generally airlines pay around $10 to us to book a RT fare so there is little room to discount. Kayak is a meta which means all they do is present prices they are given from their partners (either via a feed or scrape) and then send them to the partner who shares the fee. Southwest (as others have menti…