While more and more people tend to fly to their destination to save time, plane tickets aren't getting any cheaper - at least not if you live in certain areas.
That's correct: for a while, airlines have used people's location gathered from the IP address when they book a flight to determine how much to charge for a ticket.
It seems that some airlines believe travelers have more money to spend if they live in a certain area. Even if that's not true, using your laptop to book a flight might start to look like a bad idea. Even if you find some of the best offers out there, your internet connection will still betray you, and you'll end up with a more expensive ticket than you ever thought possible.
They Know Where You Are…
We know that retail stores and companies tend to track our online activity for marketing purposes. You might visit a website looking at information about airplanes, and 5 minutes later you see an ad trying to sell you expensive plane tickets. This is a common occurrence, however, some airlines have decided to take their money-making campaigns to the next level.
As you might know, whenever you connect to the internet your computer broadcasts your unique IP number, which shows the site you're on where you're from. IPs are not easy to mask, and the browser you use can read it and deliver the information to any website you might visit. As a result, the booking company whose website you're using to book your ticket will know where you're from and adjust the price based on that parameter.
While most people might assume that there shouldn't be a big difference between prices, some have reported that they were asked to pay as much as $400 extra when they reached the page to finalize the booking process.
This is a serious concern for anyone who is struggling financially and who was still able to afford a plane ticket until recently. Masking your IP through a proxy might not even work, since some systems can use your device's GPS chip to detect your location.
Finding a Workaround
Unfortunately, this isn't just a sci-fi idea from the mind of an uncommonly imaginative writer. It turns out that companies actually track people's location and use it against them. The good news is that there are ways that can act as a workaround to circumvent a problem, and they're more accessible to you than you might think.
Getting cheaper flight tickets can depend a lot on how much you travel, but there are also many other factors that are involved.
These days, it seems that, rather than looking to gather frequent flyer miles, you also have to start hiding your IP. Unfortunately, there aren't many easy ways to do that, other than by getting your own VPN (virtual private network) at a good price from a dependable provider such as Surfshark.
By so doing, you can counter the measures taken by airlines and get yourself the bargain plane tickets that you've been counting on before you book your next exciting vacation.
