There's an old local joke around here, about a guy who dropped by the local baker day after day, just to ask whether he's got 2000 buns, which the baker never had. Then, one day, out of curiosity, the baker makes 2000 buns and finally answers "yes!" to the question. The guy just says "well, I have no idea to whom would you sell them".
Something of the kind comes to mind about the air transport companies. It's a known fact of today's life that the price of airfare is something close to Douglas Adams's bistromathics. The relationship to relativistic physics is stronger than one would expect - the event entirely depends on the observer.
My family has taken to traveling this winter, and we have observed this phenomenon over and over. You visit a dozen sites, looking for the cheapest tickets with shortest layover times, trying to avoid a few ugly and nasty airports along the way. It just happens that the third on your list now doesn't look so bad as it first did, and you get back to it, maybe twenty minutes later. And bingo - it's now 20€ more than it was. Just for kicks, check others from the first five, and yes, they have all raised their prices just the same. Because you looked at them.
This is the fallacy of the click counter. For a specific itinerary, for which there was no interest (the departing and destination airports are no major hubs), the fact that you have clicked on dozen of airlines' websites, looking for that trip, creates an interest in that specific trip on that specific day. You, as an observer, are counted as a factor (in this case, demand) in the event you are observing (price). It's all relative, my dear Albert (mr. Marić).
In the end, you will find your airfare cheaper than you thought, but it won't be a dozen clicks away, it will take two hours. But there is still something you can do about this, for your future trips, until they make their algorithms behave smarter and not fall for small variations in the data (it's still just one person clicking around, from the same IP address). You can now go back, day after day. to these sites and keep looking for the ticket you already bought. If your interest counts so much, make it count even more.
During the actual trip, you may just sit in a nearly empty airplane, because you have priced everybody out. They may not have baked 2000 buns, but they will try to make their 200 buns count tenfold, if only their algorithms think there's sufficient interest. You be that interest.
Something of the kind comes to mind about the air transport companies. It's a known fact of today's life that the price of airfare is something close to Douglas Adams's bistromathics. The relationship to relativistic physics is stronger than one would expect - the event entirely depends on the observer.
My family has taken to traveling this winter, and we have observed this phenomenon over and over. You visit a dozen sites, looking for the cheapest tickets with shortest layover times, trying to avoid a few ugly and nasty airports along the way. It just happens that the third on your list now doesn't look so bad as it first did, and you get back to it, maybe twenty minutes later. And bingo - it's now 20€ more than it was. Just for kicks, check others from the first five, and yes, they have all raised their prices just the same. Because you looked at them.
This is the fallacy of the click counter. For a specific itinerary, for which there was no interest (the departing and destination airports are no major hubs), the fact that you have clicked on dozen of airlines' websites, looking for that trip, creates an interest in that specific trip on that specific day. You, as an observer, are counted as a factor (in this case, demand) in the event you are observing (price). It's all relative, my dear Albert (mr. Marić).
In the end, you will find your airfare cheaper than you thought, but it won't be a dozen clicks away, it will take two hours. But there is still something you can do about this, for your future trips, until they make their algorithms behave smarter and not fall for small variations in the data (it's still just one person clicking around, from the same IP address). You can now go back, day after day. to these sites and keep looking for the ticket you already bought. If your interest counts so much, make it count even more.
During the actual trip, you may just sit in a nearly empty airplane, because you have priced everybody out. They may not have baked 2000 buns, but they will try to make their 200 buns count tenfold, if only their algorithms think there's sufficient interest. You be that interest.
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