The scenario is familiar to anyone who has booked a flight in recent years: you look for a Bucharest-Barcelona ticket, you find a price that seems acceptable to you, you leave to think about it, you come back a few hours later and the price is higher. So sometimes the conclusion also appears: “They saw that I was interested and increased the price”. It’s an explanation that seems plausible. But is it real? Airline ticket prices are among the most volatile of any consumer market. A seat on the same flight can cost two or three times as much depending on the day, hour or even minute we look for it.
The price increases if you check multiple times from the same account – myth or reality?
The theory is simple and has been circulating on the Internet for years: if you search for the same flight several times, from the same account or device, the airline “sees” that you are interested and increases your price, hoping that you will panic buy. So the consistently recommended solution is to use incognito mode or delete cookies before booking.
The reality, confirmed by several independent studies, is more nuanced. A 2024 study by Quartz, which compared hundreds of normal and incognito searches, found that private mode offered lower prices in only about 7% of cases, higher prices in 5% of cases, and in 88% of situations the prices were identical.
In another test, someone searched for the same flight 100 times in an hour. The result? No increase was recorded. At the same time, Skyscanner, one of the most popular search engines for flights, has explicitly announced: it does not adjust prices according to cookies, location or search history.
There is a grain of truth to the theory though. Some booking platforms may use cookies for personalized offers. And there is a real phenomenon of location-based pricing: Users searching from countries with higher purchasing power may see slightly different prices than those searching from less developed regions. But this is a phenomenon of geotargeting.
Why does the myth of prices going up if you check multiple times persist? Because the price does change between two consecutive searches, but not because of the frequency. It changes for everyone, all the time.
How Airline Pricing Really Works
Every flight does not have a single price for economy class, for example. It has dozens of prices, organized into what the industry calls fare buckets, that is, different price classes, organized in molds. Each contains a limited number of seats at a certain price. When the seats in one mold are sold out, the next one is automatically opened, at a higher price. This is why one passenger can pay even 150 euros more or less than another.
The system that manages all of this is called yield managementt or revenue management and works on the basis of algorithms that constantly analyze: real-time demand, sales pace against capacity, competitor prices, booking history on similar routes, season and special events that may increase demand.
Why is today cheaper than tomorrow (or vice versa)
Price fluctuations therefore follow some patterns that are good to know.
Distance to flight date is the most important factor. Generally, prices are lower a few months out, gradually increase as the flight approaches, peak in the last couple of weeks, and can drop sharply in the last few days if seats haven’t sold – but we can’t count on that final drop. Analysis shows that the best time to book international flights, in terms of prices, not flexibility, is between 8 and 12 weeks before the race.
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The demand of the moment plays a massive role. An announced concert, a major sporting event, a national holiday, or even news about a destination can generate a wave of searches that quickly closes the low-priced mold and automatically opens a more expensive one.
Competition on a route it matters. A route operated by two or three companies competing for the same passenger segment will invariably be cheaper than a route served by a single operator, even if the distance is greater.
Fuel and airport taxes it influences the cost structure of the ticket, but does not explain daily price variations. An airline ticket includes airport taxes, security fees, and sometimes a fee to cover the price of fuel.
What does the law say?
Airlines operating in the European Union are subject to clear rules on price transparency, established by Regulation (EC) no. 1008/2008. The basic rule: the final price of the ticket – including all taxes, airport charges and any other unavoidable costs – must be displayed in full before the passenger completes the purchase. Optional extras (baggage, seat selection, insurance) must be clearly communicated and explicitly accepted by the passenger, not ticked by default.
The European Commission recently reconfirmed in May 2026 that these obligations also include post-purchase protection: once the ticket is purchased, the company cannot retroactively add any additional costs, even in the context of fuel price increases.
Practices in the gray area
European consumer organizations have repeatedly documented practices at or even beyond the limits of the law. A case in point, presented by Euroconsumers in May 2025: a search for a Brussels–Barcelona flight displayed a price and warned that “there are only 3 seats available at this rate”. 23 minutes away, the same flight was available at a lower price. Creating a false sense of urgency – “buy now or lose out” – is explicitly prohibited by the European directives on unfair commercial practices. However, legal procedures are slow and fines not always deterrent.
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Another practice documented by European consumer associations is to display an attractive price on the first page of the search, followed by the successive addition of taxes and extras during the booking process, so that the final price can be 40-60% higher than the one initially displayed. The law requires that the full price be visible from the start, but the definition “from the beginning” sometimes remains interpretable.
How we book more efficiently and cheaper
Specialists recommend comparing prices on several platforms and checking the airline’s website directly. Sometimes the prices differ significantly.
If we are flexible with the dates, “price calendar” type tools (available on Google Flights, Skyscanner or Kayak) quickly show which days of the month the flight is cheaper.
And, perhaps the most important tip: when we find a good price and are determined to fly, it is good to book as soon as possible.
