different browser, different pricing

[Rawtenstall]

A question for the techies out there. I was booking a Ryanair flight today, MAD to DUB one-way in May. I was using Google Chrome and the price quoted was €58. But before I could complete the transaction my computer crashed.

I know that not all websites work with Chrome, so moments later I started the booking procedure again using Internet Explorer, and the price came up as €42.

Odd I thought - same flight, same day, no extras, but there it was and I completed the booking at €42.

I know that airline pricing is actively managed, but a drop of €16 within a couple of minutes - was I just lucky or might it be connected to the browser being used?

[jimd-f]

it is probably down to cookies on your computer. if you check prices on a regular basis with the LOCOs before booking the cookie will remember this.
using a different browser will not remember you previous searches and so you may get a lower price.
it is always good practice when buying on line to clear your cookies between doing searches and actually buying something.

[Flyaways]

I think they increase the price each time you look at it, hoping that you'll pay a higher price.

As jimd-f said, it's to do with the cookies. If you want to get round it, use incognito mode or in-private browsing.

[Sunnyjohn]

Also the airline ticketing computer system is set so that it constantly changes the prices depending upon how many hits each price has received. You can log in and check the price over a period of a day or more and the price will continually fluctuate. I was given to understand (on another thread) that in fact the system does not alter the price to you depending on how much interest you have shown, but that might be for just one company.

[25F]

Some testing has been done:

http://www.tnooz.com/2011/04/12/news/why-ryanair-the-cookie-monster-is-just-an-urban-myth/

Not enough for my mind, you'd want to test over a number of visits.

[EEngr]

Firefox on GNU/Linux here. We don't want to pay for anything ..... :E