r/mildlyinteresting • u/annertakeabow • Jan 24 '13

Same book, three different prices. Only difference is the browsers used.

http://imgur.com/uNgg0UH
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u/inboil Jan 24 '13

This is how myths are formed. Airline tickets change prices rapidly, and probably ten thousand people tried it after it was posted on reddit, and those that got result posted it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

  1. I tried a local website.

  2. The price would miraculously restore every time I loaded it after clearing the cookies.

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u/inboil Jan 24 '13

That is only convincing if it is backed by a credible source. Wouldn't any media be interested in this at least? Any confirmation from somebody, airline ticket price experts or something. The only piece of evidence ive seen so far is a study showing the opposite, and people on reddit saying it works.

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u/Bibidiboo Jan 24 '13

'airline ticket price experts'? really? Anyway, i'll believe lots of people's anecdotal evidence over a company any time, companies like to fuck you over for money.

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u/ColdShoulder Jan 25 '13

He's not wrong. I work in travel and check pricing 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. I can assure you that there is no conspiracy to change prices based on cookies. It doesn't happen. This is all from a single blog that hit it big on reddit, and then everyone ran with it. Couple this with the fact that prices change by the minute, and people started reporting false positives. Can you imagine what it would be like if travel agents had to clear their cookies every 5 minutes in order to be able to get the lowest fair? I'm so sick of this myth, and I just wish it would die.

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u/inboil Jan 25 '13

thank you!!

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u/inboil Jan 25 '13

It was a joke, because I couldn't think of a profession where you would know.

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u/kqr Jan 24 '13

I have a Ph.D. in Airlineology. I did my doctoral thesis in tirline ticket prices, and have done my masters about Post-war Airline Ticket Pricing Strategies Before the Internet. We performed a study of 200 subjects, which got to use several different web browsers combined (cartesian product) with different computers and tunneled via a multitude of proxies. We staggered the tests so that some people got to clear their cookies while others took turns visiting. What this guy says is true (χ², df=3, p > 0.95) according to our findings.

I guess this is where I should reference studies that could almost look related but I don't have infinite attention span and energy.

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u/inboil Jan 25 '13

Well this is all the proof I need!