# travel comparison sites ... your expirience

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 3, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819 "2015-09-03T15:30:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ToughLife](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@ToughLife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToughLife)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819/1 "2015-09-03T15:30:58Z")

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Tried searching the board … no luck.

Do they (comparison sites / airlines ) really hike the price after a few attempts of searching?  
That happened to me on more than one occasion.  
Does it happen routinely ?

**Kayak** would be a perfect example, or **trivago** (hotels).

I clean cookies after every search… doesn’t help anymore.  
I heard they now monitor not just cookies but my IP address as well.

What has been your experience?

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**Author:** ![ToughLife](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@ToughLife](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToughLife)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819/2 "2015-09-06T14:56:12Z")

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Looking at the stampede of people willing to answer  
it feels like my question was really stupid.  
Oh well.

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**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819/3 "2015-09-06T15:05:44Z")

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I never buy through travel comparison sites. I compare through travel comparison sites. I then go buy directly from the airline or hotel website in a different browser.

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**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819/4 "2015-09-06T17:20:02Z")

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Check out an app called Hopper. I read about it, sort of a comparison, plus predictor of airfare movement, up or down, how substantially, etc. Claims insider access to pricing strategies, etc. Even having read about it, I could not find it at the App Store. (May not be the case for you!) Eventually finding a link from a blog!

It’s a very interesting tool, give it a try.

(Definitely was NOT a stupid question!)

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**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819/5 "2015-09-07T01:56:52Z")

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> [@ToughLife](#):
>
> Tried searching the board … no luck.
> 
> Do they (comparison sites / airlines ) really hike the price after a few attempts of searching?  
> That happened to me on more than one occasion.  
> Does it happen routinely ?
> 
> **Kayak** would be a perfect example, or **trivago** (hotels).
> 
> I clean cookies after every search… doesn’t help anymore.  
> I heard they now monitor not just cookies but my IP address as well.
> 
> What has been your experience?

I asked the same question a few months ago! And got the same response-not much.  
I certainly get the feeling that if you keep searching for the best price, those initial prices are not there when you go back.

I now have 2 rules: reserve the first good price I find, I count on the 24 hour cancelation policy, before I continue shopping. 2) keep my cookies cleared while I am shopping. Certainly when I go back, my browser is brand new. 🙂

Seems to work for me, especially rule 1.

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**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-comparison-sites-your-expirience/729819/6 "2015-09-08T02:45:45Z")

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You could also check out a site called, Skiplagged.