I saw a flight go from €483 to €547 in 24 hours WITHOUT a single seat being sold.

I searched for a flight from London to New York on a Tuesday.
€483
Rechecked two hours later:
€512
The next morning:
€547
I panicked and booked it.
The guy sitting next to me paid €391.
Same seat, date, and airline.
€156 less.
He searched once.
I searched three times.
The algorithm saw me return and charged me until I broke.
The seat has no price.
You have a price.
And it increases EVERY time you show interest.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I asked someone who actually creates pricing algorithms for a European operator.
I asked what had happened to me.
“They profiled you. The system assigned you an intent score after your second search and increased your limit each time you returned.”
I asked how to beat it.
Most people think a VPN solves it. That’s advice from 2015.
Now, the algorithm tracks more than just your IP. It reads your device, your browser, your screen resolution, and your time zone.
VPN to Bucharest, but your clock shows London and your language is English?
The algorithm knows you’re lying and sometimes charges you more for trying.
“So, what actually works?”
“You have to poison the entire profile. Not just the location, but also the identity.”
The protocol I was given:
Use a VPN and match your time zone and language to the fake location. Mismatched signals flag you and can cause a price increase.
Use a completely clean browser. No history, no saved passwords, no Google account. The algorithm records your session, not just your cookies.
One search, one booking. The intent score activates on the second search. There’s no safe way to look twice.
Book on Tuesday or Wednesday between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Low traffic means less demand data for the algorithm to inflate the price.
If the price has already skyrocketed, disconnect for at least 72 hours, not 24. The intent score in most operators decays on a 3-day cycle. Return with a different device from a different network.
“We spend 4 billion euros building these systems. They’re not going to lose to someone who opened an incognito tab.”
Industry worth 900 billion euros.
The difference between what you pay and what the person next to you pays is not a mistake.
It’s the entire business model.
Stop letting an algorithm charge you for being predictable.