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How I “hacked” Kayak and booked a cheaper flight

josecasanova.com

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

#71

Post by kbenson »

BTW, I use the VPN to mask my internet traffic… sorry NSA

That's okay. I'm sure the minor inconvenience of not seeing the data flow directly to your local IP is more than made up for by the data collection at both sides of that VPN...

To be serious, I wonder if they apply extra scrutiny to VPN providers, and use traffic analysis to build correlations between TCP connections. The extra effort might be justified by a higher class of data going across the connections.

Then again, it's probably easier to just use some form of evercookie injected into TCP streams on the fly...

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

#72

Post by cbr »

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…

    For example, we can charge black people more (based on
    zip-code demographics) to discourage them from flying
    first class.
A middleman like Kayak has no incentive to keep black people out of first-class. They do have an incentive to price discriminate: charge people more who would be willing to pay more. Likely outcome: lower fares for economically disadvantaged groups. Except the middlemen are all required to charge the fare the airline sets, and can't compete on price.

The airlines currently price discriminate primarily by separating the relatively price-insensitive business travelers from highly price-sensitive leisure travelers. This is why you'll generally see lower fares for round trips that span a weekend: if you're traveling for work you generally don't want to spend your weekend off away from your family.

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

#73

Post by raganwald »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #52
raganwald wrote: post #23

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.

Your outrage is noted. I feel exactly the same way about the way highly admired companies around here behave, only they have nicer names for exploitation like "price discrimination" and "market segmentation" and "monetizing customers."

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

#74

Post by User8712 »

WildUtah wrote: post #21

Looks like the cheap flights were on WN (Southwest) and the expensive flights were on DL (Delta). I just did an example flight search to fly later this week (Jan 24-30 round trip) from SLC to OAK, a route that both DL and WN fly direct. Kayak shows me fares from $492 on US and B6 changing planes in Phoenix or Long Beach (doubling distance and quintupling flight time) and direct flights from $532 on DL. Kayak doesn't…

The lesson is know what a fair price is for your flight, then check a handful of sites often until it comes up for around that price. Try to book at least a few weeks in advance.

I can't stress the first point enough. When you buy anything, or if you need to negotiate a price, do your research, and know what it should cost. It's especially true when booking flights, because you don't want to see a price, think it might go lower, and miss a great deal. If you know the fair value, you can recognize a good offer when you see it, and book instantly.

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

#75

Post by fennecfoxen »

raganwald wrote: post #73
JulianMorrison wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your outrage is noted. I feel exactly the same way about the way highly admired companies around here behave, only they have nicer names for exploitation like "price discrimination" and "market segmentation" and "monetizing customers."

The universities have that one won hands-down: they call it "financial aid."

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

#76

Post by wwweston »

blazespin wrote: post #27

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.

I have a similarly bizarre little story that's sort of the opposite: I recently added a leg to a trip and cut my fare.

Just before the holidays, I was trying to get a flight from LAX to SLC. I tend to fly Southwest, but was finding the fares higher than usual -- generally I can get something in the $250-$300 range, I was seeing $350ish.

I was offered a ride to Sacramento, so I checked SAC -> SLC and found I could purchase that flight for $200. I booked it.

There are no direct flights from SAC -> SLC on Southwest, though. Mine, as it turned out, stopped over in... LAX.

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

#77

Post by emrekzd »

there is working a trick for long distance flights. I used it a few times to get cheaper tickets:

when you are buying long distance flight tickets, pick a city close to where you will depart (this will add an additional flight transferring from your departure city). When you get multiple transfers there is a possibility that the offered price will be cheaper (I confirmed this with an agency when I initially figured this out). If you get a cheaper price buy it and call the airlines to tell them you will miss the first flight, and have them correct the check in location to your departure city. I was able to save $100 travelling from europe to east coast last time I did this.

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

#78

Post by raganwald »

dllthomas wrote: post #55
JulianMorrison wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is there cheating going on here?

There is if you lie to the customer. There isn't if you say "Tough bananas, the written quote expired, we both get to renegotiate."

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

#80

Post by coin »

WildUtah wrote: post #21

Looks like the cheap flights were on WN (Southwest) and the expensive flights were on DL (Delta). I just did an example flight search to fly later this week (Jan 24-30 round trip) from SLC to OAK, a route that both DL and WN fly direct. Kayak shows me fares from $492 on US and B6 changing planes in Phoenix or Long Beach (doubling distance and quintupling flight time) and direct flights from $532 on DL. Kayak doesn't…

Who is "B6"? Can you just spell out the airline name instead?
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