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How to Get the Best Prices Online for Your Flight and Hotel

Jeevan Sivasubramaniam Posted by Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Managing Director, Editorial, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.



Have you ever wondered why when you search for a particular plan ticket or hotel that you recieve different price quotes from someone else searching for the same thing? Often, it's because the travel site registers and creates cookies--those deceptively sweet-sounding evil bits of data that they use to identify you. When you visit a travel site and search repeatedly for the same trip particulars, the site recognizes that you are probably going to make an actual purchase (versus just "browsing"). Given this, the site will jack up the prices on subsequent visits because it assumes you are going to make a purchase and so they just want to get as much money from you as possible.

This is not a rumor or theory, almost all travel sites do this and it is a fact.

To avoid this fee escalation, just clear out your cookies before visiting the travel site so that it does not recognize you.