IP Tracking: myth or reality?

In the category “tips and tricks” to get cheap airline tickets, I already talked about round trips cheaper than one-way tickets. I also mentioned the trick of paying in the currency of the country of departure.

Another trick that is very regularly mentioned by groups of travelers is IP Tracking. IP Tracking is the belief that the airline increases the price of your ticket after your first search to create a sense of urgency and to encourage you to book your ticket as soon as possible. The airlines would use your IP address, which is your identifier on the Internet.

Based on this belief, some will recommend you to use the private navigation of your browser (which does not change your IP address at all) or to use your cell phone instead of your computer (which also does not change your IP address if you are connected to Wifi on the same box). To change your IP address, you must use a VPN.

IP Tracking is largely a myth, let’s see what it is.

IP Tracking is illegal

Not necessarily worldwide but at least in the European Union, there is a whole legal arsenal protecting us against this technique which would be considered both an unfair commercial practice and a violation of the protection of personal data.

No case of IP Tracking has ever been demonstrated

Knowing that it is an illegal practice, that many believe to be a victim, and knowing the defense associations like 60 million consumers, you can imagine that if the practice of IP Tracking had been proven for years, there would have been complaints, investigations, convictions.

The CNIL and the DGCCRF did conduct a survey on the subject in 2013 to conclude that “none of the techniques observed took into account the IP address of Internet users as a determining factor or aimed to modulate the price of products or services offered to consumers.

One might think they didn’t look where they should have looked, but with the thousands of developers who have been in the different airlines / travel agencies, there would have been a whistle-blower one day if unspeakable practices were used.

It is (almost) impossible technically

When looking for a plane ticket, you often use flight comparators. These flight comparators use APIs (query interfaces for the sake of simplicity) to retrieve prices from different airlines. During these queries, it is the flight comparator that requests the price, not you directly. Your IP address isn’t transmitted and the airline has no idea that it is you making the request.

It would be technically feasible if you searched directly on the company’s website but it would mean that you would see two different prices between the company’s website and the comparator. The differences would be obvious.

On the other hand, yield management is a reality

What is true is that airlines do everything to maximize the turnover of a flight. To do this, they use yield management algorithms that will vary prices very regularly.

To simplify, at the opening of the reservations of a flight, the tickets will be at a fare X which will evolve as time goes by. If the algorithm considers that there is a delay in the marketing of seats, it will tend to lower prices. If, on the contrary, the tickets sell like hot cakes, the computer program will increase the prices.

They are therefore robots that set prices and can change them several times a day. So much so that even airline employees can’t guess how prices will change

This is also why there may be prices considered abusive. During the covid, for example, when thousands of people were trying to return to their countries, the Yield Management robots raised prices when they saw the increase in demand (it is the same logic with the Uber which have prices that explode when there are attacks in an area).

The constantly changing rates are therefore not the fault of IP Tracking but of Yield Management. The price can vary from one hour to the next, both upwards (and that makes us grumble) but also downwards (and we are much less inclined to grumble).

Unsympathetic marketing techniques

Some companies also use unsympathetic marketing techniques.

For example, some create a sense of urgency by stating that there are “only 3 seats left at this fare”. You don’t have to believe them.

Others (more like travel agencies) have fares that look good, but at the time of payment you realize that it was a price if you paid with their card that no one has used for consumer credit. If you pay with a classic means of payment, it’s 20 or 30 euros more that you have to add.

You have to be vigilant, but again, this has nothing to do with IP Tracking.

Do I get a good price or not?

As we have seen, it is impossible to predict the evolution of the price. That’s why I tend to book my ticket without taking too much trouble, as soon as I decide to go to a destination. I take time to look for the cheapest possible company but I don’t pay attention to the timing.

If you aren’t in a hurry or you want to choose between several destinations, you can however estimate whether you get a good price or not compared to the average of the historical pricelist.

This is what Algofly, for example, offers, which historizes all the rates.

In this example for a Paris – Rome one-way trip, Algofly estimates that the average price is €128, €84 is a good price and €54 is an exceptional price. Depending on the price you are offered, you may decide to book quickly or wait and see how it goes.

Algofly also displays the average prices per month because of course, prices are higher during vacation periods.

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