Recently news has popped up about a Chinese man who may have duped an airline into letting him eat free food from the first-class lounge every day for almost a year. In the article there were links to other serious strategies for reducing airline ticket prices (obviously frowned upon by airlines and travel sites alike). One that seems interesting and possibly very doable is the strategy of "fuel dumping" in which a traveler books a 3rd flight after their original round trip and somehow due to glitches in the booking system the overall ticket price is reduced.
I did a bit of digging and this seems like a pretty legit tactic. Clearly the people who use it actively don't want to share their go-to flights for dumping fuel. I was wondering if anyone here has ever played around with this strategy. Obviously sharing specific flight paths on this board isn't the best idea - but if you're a kind soul and have done this before I would love a PM with a tip of flight paths you've used to "fuel dump" in the past.
Here are some links to the articles talking about fuel dumping in general and more specific strategies. On a side note, the code-names people come up with for their fuel dumping flights are pretty hilarious.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/11/fuel-dumping
http://www.fueldumping.net/third-strike-3x/
Not sure how legit it is, however I've heard that you should delete cookies (or history? something?) after searching for flights that you don't buy right away. Reason being, the websites track your history and slowly increase prices as you revisit the site without making a purchase.
interesting
Is this the hidden city ticketing method?
I always turn on private browsing when I'm booking flights because I know those motherfuckers are trying to play me.
The other tip I got from my consultant buddy is that all flights are cheapest on Tuesdays since the fewest flight purchases happen on Tuesdays. This lets airlines advertise "prices as low as $XX(X)" and only offer those prices one day a week.
Good tips about private browsing... seems like pretty unethical treatment of consumers to me. Can you imagine if any other online retailer did that with their prices? Surprise! Your J-Crew khakis are now 5% more expensive!
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