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Dynamic pricing

RogerS

RogerS

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In the past when looking at airfares on the BA site I noticed that going back the next day for the same flight, the price had shot up. Then someone wised me up to BA using cookies to track you and so I got into the habit of deleting BA cookies before booking or making any enquiry. That has always worked. Until now where I've noticed that the price has shot up. We're talking a return flight from Newcastle to LHR late September on a Tuesday.

So I wondered if they were also now tracking IP addresses and so used the TOR browser. Nope...still the same.

So that got me thinking and wondering if their systems are clever enough to say 'If I get x number of flight booking enquiries on Flight XXXX within a few days then chances are it's the same person and so hike up the price'.

Any thoughts ?
 
September - late - surely isn't high demand ? It's nearly winter!
 
Well winter where you are lol it’s very pleasant where we are in September.
Yes you are correct Roger, it’s the same with American Airlines, Pam and I use different iPads and one of us will sometimes go and use someone else’s wifi, can cost a lot otherwise, AA do allow you to book a flight for 24 hours with free cancellation which Pam often does, there’s not much gets past her!
Ian
 
I imagine all travel companies operate dynamic pricing - certainly Tui do, as this was confirmed to us recently in a call to one of their sales people.
Their prices vary hour by hour, based no doubt on some arcane algorythm.

We've had hours of endless fun trying to out-guess the system, but haven't succeeded yet!
 
Just as a matter of interest, I looked at the last Tuesday in September it was £92 return, the days either side were £72 .
 
Lurker said:
I’d sooner not travel than use either ba or Heathrow. Airport and airline from hell.
Click to expand...
Quite agree about BA, I was picking Pam up from Heathrow this morning and apart from a £13 parking charge for just over half an hour!!! It went really smoothly. I was stood waiting for her to appear and trying to guess all the Nationalities of the arrivals, even a Sheikh in full dress with tea towel and a man at his side with a briefcase plus two Huge trolleys full of suitcases and large square boxes, all together enough to fill a transit. Heathrow’s ok as long as nothing goes wrong. Just after covid going through security was shockingly awful.
We keep hoping that Manchester will start up to Philly again
 
Lurker said:
I’d sooner not travel than use either ba or Heathrow. Airport and airline from hell.
Click to expand...
Can I add Edinburgh airport to the list of places that qualify as one of the circles of hell. They have been ‘upgrading’ it for the last 30 years. And it’s still rubbish.

Mind you, why would you want to fly? As Uncle Matthew said: ‘abroad is unutterably bloody, and all foreigners are fiends’.

This notwithstanding, my personal airport favourites are Changi (roof top pool with a bar) and Barra (like a wee café on the beach). I think that covers a fairly broad spectrum.

Off next week Edinburgh-Istabul-Ercan. Anything to avoid the blasted Festival, and the triple blasted Fringe.
 
Newcastle Airport is brilliant. They've invested a lot recently and it shows. One of the first airports to have the new (now non-functioning IIRC) scanners.
 
Lurker said:
Just as a matter of interest, I looked at the last Tuesday in September it was £92 return, the days either side were £72 .
Click to expand...
Are you talking NCL <> LHR ? If so, what date did you choose? 24 Sept is the last Tuesday and it's nearly £200 in total at my end.
 
I always browse using one browser, and then when I'm ready to purchase I go to another browser using private browsing mode, or even better, from my Phone (a different network). I really don't know if they intentionally do this, but i've observed shenanigans and this way I'm at least trying my best to avoid these shenanigans
 
Lurker said:
Yes 24th
Click to expand...
Are you sure you’ve quoted the price including the return? The app is quoting me just under £200 there and back as well. As I’m lifetime Gold I’m supposed to get the best price!

Roger -for some unfathomable reason the app price is sometimes cheaper by a few quid. I’m unconvinced their algorithms are as good as they think.
 
I have been to nearly 50 countries in my life. The worst airport in the world, by a country mile, is JFK. Just don't. I went in 2015 and there was supposed to be ample time to connect. We were warned on landing that it was "very busy". It was carnage. I had to beg to jump the queue and even then they were closing the gate when I got there. I did catch my flight, but it ws the most horrible airport experience ever.

I'm going again in a few weeks, but this time via Reykjavík. It's many years since I've been there, but IIRC it was very good (and I'm flying Business Class).

The best was Copenhagen, domestic, more of an airfield than an airport. Check in is a wooden shed, a list of passengers on a piece of paper and a biro. Carry your own bags to the plane (16-seater prop), Get greeted by the pilot, who says, in perfect English, "You're not Danish, are you?". Thenhe proceeds to give all the announcements in English and only English. In-flight refreshments were a flask of coffee (take a cup, pass it down) or Coke (help youself from the crate, the bottle opener is tied to the aeroplane with a piece of string). The whole journey was as noisy as hell but great fun.

S
 
My worst airport experience was Munich. I tried to check in (for Lufthansa) online in advance, but they wouldn't let me choose a leg-room seat (an absolute requirement for someone of my height). Not being able to choose a leg-room seat, I fell back on the method I adopted before online check-in was a thing: arriving at the airport at least four hours in advance of the flight. In this case I was there slightly over 4½ hours early.

When I arrived, I was told I couldn't go to a desk and talk to someone to get a leg-room seat, I had to use an automated kiosk to check-in. I queued for the kiosks and when I eventually got to one, it wouldn't let me choose a leg-room seat, so I had to check-in to a random seat, then go to a desk to change the seat. The desks were also being used for bag check-in and there was a long queue. After queuing to talk to someone, I finally got moved to a leg-room seat, so I headed to security... and stood in another long queue to get through there.

Being a European airport that serves mostly domestic flights, passport control was separate to security, so as soon as I got through security I went straight to the outside-Schengen area bit to queue for passport control. I then ran to the boarding gate and was the last one to board the plane having been standing in queues for over 4½ hours. Ick.

By contrast, the best experience was Lugano airport, which is little more than a shed. When they announced boarding, the shop closed (as there weren't going to be any more flights for a while). As we stood up to board, there were people still arriving at the airport, safe in the knowledge that the time to go from airport front door to boarding gate was rarely more than about a minute. Lovely little (propeller-driven) plane too (and loads of leg-room for every seat).
 
I do recall nearly messing up big time. I thought that I would wake-up on-time without an alarm. I didn't. Luckily I was staying in an airport hotel close to Departures. I showered, dressed, packed, checked out, got the shuttle (which left the moment I got on to it), collected my tickets, checked-in, through security and having my first double espresso of the day. All in 35 minutes.
 
The golden age of air travel ended on 9/11. It so happens I was CEO of a business serving the transatlantic airline industry at that time, and I was at home that day and watched it unfold. My g/f worked for SwissAir and she was in JFK at the time trying to head back to Zurich. Ruined the whole experience. Possibly for our lifetimes.
 
Was there ever a golden age? Although I do remember travelling in the last days of BOAC (Scotland-Zambia), and being taken up to see the pilot in the cabin, who I think I remember had to sign your Junior Jet Club book.

We discussed this at dinner last night. Absolutely worst airport in the world: Khartoum. I think they are building a new one now. Well sort of had to (understatement)

And how’s this for a journey (and it can be independently verified, I’m not making this up). Intention: Edinburgh to Bamako (Mali). Big storm over the Sahara. Diverted, of all places, all the way round to Monrovia (well, it’s a bit outside the city, but close enough). Things were a bit frisky there. 3 hours on the tarmac, and there was no way the aircrew were letting anyone on the plane. At all. Then a hop to Abidjan. And after a bit, when the wind dropped to Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou. Which I admit sounds like a comedy song from the 80s. Overnighter there, and then finally Bamako. Elapsed time..oooh, about two and a half days. MIght have been quicker to do it by car. Border controls, a huge desert, local wars notwithstanding.
 
Yes - there was a time when you could visit the cockpit (I even landed in the cockpit when I was doing the sale of Belfast I. airport and was in and out constantly), in flight catering was good, there was more leg room, checkin was not a nightmare. And Concord was still alive. I've had some nightmares too though: in my earlier working days I did a lot of privatisation work in Hungary and elsewhere of similar leaning when the World Bank was splashing the cash. Had some scary experiences on old Tupolev planes including a crash dive from 32000 to 10000 feet after a depressurisation. Super scary. But the worst was a BA twin turbo prop take off and go around off Jersey. Inexplicably the plane clawed it's way into the air overweight. It then did a go around for a couple of circuits whilst they got the fire tenders organised on the runway. Then stuck it in without incident pretty much. A bus pulled up and they chucked all the fat people off (I kid you not) and we took off again and flew to Gatwick with the plane surging constantly. The stew's looked scared, which is never a good sign. Landed very hard and the port wheel stack blew all of it's tyres. Again we had the fire trucks experience and a nice little slide to the ground. Put me off flying for a while.
 
In the “golden age” I flew to eastern Europe a few times. At that time armed security guards were not common in the UK so my first experience of being searched by gun wielding security was not pleasant. 3.5 floppy discs were scrutinised (export licences at that time were required to ship more than 512kb of storage ) as were a pair of crampons ( I extended a work trip for a few days in the High Tatras ). I also had to explain why I was carrying a set off router bits for one of the Czech engineers which would have cost a fortune locally and a suitcase full of toilet rolls which were in short supply at the time. This was mid 80’s before the fall of communism. With a totally selfish viewpoint Prague and Budapest were much nicer places to be at that time, accompanied by local colleagues, than they are today as a result of cheap flights and stag weekends. Much cheaper too.
 
Our paths may have crossed! I was there then too. Worked in Budapest pre wall, and Prague. Did the first privatisation - a bulb maker called Tungsram. Was an illuminating experience :-) as many workers then had three "jobs" - one of which was sleeping on a camp bed on the factory floor. The hidden away restaurants serving the Russian well off (and us) had huge supplies of cheap top quality caviar, Tokai and numerous delicacies. Times were a changin' and the atmosphere was fairly benign. Some of the smarter Russians were about to get very rich.
 
Not an airport in the usual sense but in the 70s based in Beverley the company I worked for had 3 aircraft, a rather nice Cessna which I was only allowed in on special occasions and a couple of twin prop Beechcraft Barons. I could summon one of the latter whenever I needed to make a quick visit to customers in Scotland.
They were kept outside of London and flown by agency pilots who would park up at Brough airfield the night before and we would fly out at 9am when the airfield opened but had to be back for 5pm and this was an issue if late as we'd be pushed to Leeds Bradford, 70 miles away while my car was stranded at Brough. The runway was sloped to the side and flooding was an issue after heavy rain as well which made for some interesting take off and landings. :oops:
I only ever used a plane in the winter and those Barons were damned cold, unpressurised and little or no heating that I can remember. Great fun though when it didn't all go t*ts up.
 
There is a report in the Daily Mail on Sunday that booking holidays on a website can be more expensive than using a smartphone app. I am not about to register to view the whole article so can only read the headline.
 
I have read that typically you look around at several holidays sometimes returning to your chosen one several times before booking. Companies track this behaviour and dont always offer the best deal.
Advice is to make your decision using one browser and book using another thus appearing to be a new customer and hook the attractive deal.
 
AndyP said:
There is a report in the Daily Mail on Sunday that booking holidays on a website can be more expensive than using a smartphone app. I am not about to register to view the whole article so can only read the headline.
Click to expand...
I’ve found that when booking flights with BA.
 
I used to visit a factory in Swaziland, fly down Monday morning and back Friday afternoon.

Royal Swazi Air had an old Focker F28, nice plane.

The one Friday I arrived at Matsapha airport, lots of police and army around, very unusual. Checked the hired car in and go to check in for the flight.

“Sorry sir the flight has been cancelled.”

Why?

“If you look out the window you will see the plane, red carpets, guards, police, lots of big black vehicles. The King is travelling overseas and has commandeered the plane to wherever he connects with the next flight. Shall I book you the first flight in the morning when the plane is back?”

Soooooooooo, back to car hire and book into hotel again. Phone home, will see you tomorrow.





Another flight issue was when I did a day trip to a factory in George.

Arrived at the airport late afternoon from the factory, plenty of time for a few beers.

The lounge overlooks the apron and runway. We see our plane landing, new big prop-job, then it disappears behind the building. It will now turn into the slip road and come back to park at the apron.

So, we all crane our necks waiting. Waiting. Waiting. No plane!

A passenger bus drives down in that direction as well as baggage carts.

I go down to the check in counters, where is our flight?

“Apologies Sir, there is a technical problem, the flight will be delayed indefinitely, and a replacement will not be here before midnight. Can I book you onto the morning flight? There are a few seats available.”

Ok, go and hire a car, book into an hotel, go and buy a comb, toothpaste and toothbrush. Will travel in the same clothes.

Phone home, and boss, advise of delay.

The pilot apparently made his turn at the end of the runway a bit too wide and buried the front wheel in the mud, it had been raining for a few days.

He was far enough off the main runway otherwise the airport would have been shutdown.



The view from the lounge showing the mist rolling in from the sea as we waited.

GeorgeAirportMist.jpg
 
Another flying story. I went to the Falkland Islands in 2008 for a couple of weeks (fascinating place, but that's a different story) to visit SWIMBO who was on a six month deployment. There's air 'air bridge' operated by an American charter outfit, using DC10s that flies twice a week from RAF Brize Norton to Stanley and it cost me the princely sum of £50 each way (16,000 mile round trip) and the aircraft, reasonably enough, had to land at Ascension Island for a crew swap over and to re-fuel.
The passengers, not many of us (I had a whole 14 seats across the aircraft to myself) could disembark for an hour into a special building on the tarmac where we could get a very posh, and rather rare passport stamp as well as a cold beer or three. Just before disembarking an announcement came over the tannoy for "strictly no photographs under any circumstances" and when we got to the tarmac we could see why.

Air Force One was parked about 50 metres away - Rob
 
AJB Temple said:
Yes - there was a time when you could visit the cockpit (I even landed in the cockpit when I was doing the sale of Belfast I. airport and was in and out constantly), in flight catering was good, there was more leg room, checkin was not a nightmare. And Concord was still alive. I've had some nightmares too though: in my earlier working days I did a lot of privatisation work in Hungary and elsewhere of similar leaning when the World Bank was splashing the cash. Had some scary experiences on old Tupolev planes including a crash dive from 32000 to 10000 feet after a depressurisation. Super scary. But the worst was a BA twin turbo prop take off and go around off Jersey. Inexplicably the plane clawed it's way into the air overweight. It then did a go around for a couple of circuits whilst they got the fire tenders organised on the runway. Then stuck it in without incident pretty much. A bus pulled up and they chucked all the fat people off (I kid you not) and we took off again and flew to Gatwick with the plane surging constantly. The stew's looked scared, which is never a good sign. Landed very hard and the port wheel stack blew all of it's tyres. Again we had the fire trucks experience and a nice little slide to the ground. Put me off flying for a while.
Click to expand...
My worst experience was a flight Port Sudan to Riyadh, despite being between different countries was classed as an internal flight ( afterwards we were told this was to avoid international safety standards).
At the check in the clerk had a jam jar of used hyperdermics on his desk and informed us we needed innoculations of an undisclosed type, when asked if we could pay to avoid this “of course” was the reply.
Walking to the plane, large patches of canvas plainly visible on every tyre. Leaks from the engine cowlings, duct tape and silicon holding things shut.
The stairs descended from bottom of tail section and were lopsided, overhead lockers either had bits missing or again secured with tape.
Seatbelts that were a mishmash of bits tied together and seats that you chose to avoid the ones that had collapsed the most.
We were so stunned it didn’t occur to us to refuse to fly. This was only 20 years ago.
This was after the transfer coach had brocken down and the driver had asked us to try and bump start it, he then flagged down a passing pick up truck for us to climb in the back.

About 2 months later an aircraft on the same route fell out of the sky and only 1 toddler survived.
Running an airline on the basis of religious faith is probably not the best way forward.
 
I recall coming in to land one time, with my wife, as we returned from holiday. I noticed that the flaps hadn’t been extended and said to my wife “This is going to be interesting” and explained why. I spent some time reassuring her saying that pilots trained for it but that we’d hit the tarmac hard and fast, and just then the pilot came on the speakers and repeated almost verbatim what I’d just said.

Sure enough, it was hard and fast and as we hurtled down the runway we had an escort of fire engines…rather impressive sight, to be honest and reminded me that if I were to be in an incident on landing then I’d be much happier if it occurred at a British airport. We finally came to a halt right at the end of the runway and pulled off to a stand nearby. And waited. The pilot came onto the speakers and apologised for the delay telling us that he was waiting for an empty gate. I think his name was Pinocchio. I told my wife he was fibbing and that they were waiting to see if the brakes caught fire.

We eventually taxii’d to the terminal where another fire engine - reassuringly waited for us - just in case.
 
Picking up on Roger's post...Back in the early 90's as a young man I was involved with the board of the Civil Aviation Authority on professional secondment, when the CAA was chaired by Chris Chataway (of running fame). Top bloke. (It also controlled NATS - maybe it still does). The board agenda routinely included reports on civilian aircraft near misses and other safety related aircraft and airport events air side from the UK and elsewhere. Very interesting to see different approaches to safety around the world and I can quite understand Rog preferring at the time to have his incident on a British runway. Some of the reports were hair raisingly scary.

Friend of mine in bygone days was a KLM captain on long haul. He reckoned that the most dangerous thing in the air is the pilot. He said flying long haul is so boring that some crew are tempted to take silly risks. This was a good 20 or so years ago and I don't know if it was truth or bravado, but he flew rescue helicopters in his spare time (which is not risk free at all), and I know two guys who are commercial and flying ex WWII kit just for the thrills. The flying spits etc are meticulously maintained and certified but they are still 80+ years old.
 
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