"I'm not touching you!" ✈️👉🧍

Why does everything have to be such a fucking scam?

Airlines ABSOLUTELY change their prices if you repeatedly check routes to a city. I have watched them change by over $100 over a few hours a day when contemplating a trip using their flight searches.

I now do all the flight route and time checking with a browser private window, no location being served, and VPN with an exit far from where I am, then use a phone on a cellular network to do any booking or vice versa in order to prevent tracking or some sort of identifying hash they might grab.

It's such a cheapass scam to basically gouge a customer based on interest.

JetBlue is hardly the first airline to fall into the limelight for potentially changing its prices based on a user’s browser history.

The Federal Trade Commission has studied surveillance pricing methods since 2024, and found retailers often used people’s personal information to set individualized pricing information. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said he “directed staff to start examining” if new disclosure rules are needed by companies during a Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month.

Not surprised. Always book tickets in private browsing, preferably with a VPN. Expect to get upcharged otherwise.

Good on that JetBlue employee for showing a level of empathy. They were probably fired for it, but at least they went out with a bang.

I am going to run for Congress in 2028, and my entire platform is going to be built around making it legal to Luigi corrupt people and burn down corrupt businesses.

This shit is not going to stop until we get bloody.

My answer to this is always "I opened an incognito window, effectively the same thing"

that's a cool website that I'll never be able to read

https://archive.is/7d2Ky

I haven’t had this happen to me with European airlines I think. Is there maybe some law forcing them to keep steady prices? From what I’ve seen (though I don’t fly that often) prices don’t really fluctuate and just rise with more demand, with some last minute tickets going for pennies.

I have always heard of this but thought it was an urban legend. I've never seen my flights change price after I looked them up more than once. And I always check first with Skyscanner and then search those flights with my browser and find them at the same price. Does this actually happen in Europe? Or is it illegal here?

I still haven't figured out if Google's flight search forwards view data similar to checking on the actual airline's website because I've definitely seen price hikes occur in realtime, but I can't tell if that's because of constant rechecks close to the flight date, or just the static algorithm increasing the price as the flight date approaches.

Otherwise I'm kind of skeptical of how they allow Google to use such data and present it for free.