Is it just me, or do airline checkout pages behave like moody teenagers-sulking when you want the bare fare, suddenly agreeable when you act like you’ll buy every add-on under the sun, then ghost you if you clear cookies? Here’s the possibly bonkers idea: has anyone systematically tested whether baiting an airline/OTA with extras (seat, insurance, flex, bags) lowers the base fare during the funnel-and then ditching those extras at the last step actually keeps the lower total? I’ve seen the base fare nudge down mid-funnel on a couple of sites when I click “yes” to a bag and “maybe” to insurance, but I can’t tell if I’m hallucinating, being manipulated, or accidentally inventing Schrodinger’s carry-on. I’m thinking of a community experiment where we all try the same itinerary across different variables and report if total price shifts stick after stripping extras. Variables to flip: Order of operations: add everything first, then remove; vs. start barebones and add late Device: mobile app vs. mobile web vs. desktop Cookies/tracking: fresh incognito vs. returning user vs. logged-in loyalty account Currency and point-of-sale: local currency vs. airline’s home currency vs. “creative” currency via foreign OTA Payment method: major card vs. low-fee debit vs. BNPL vs. airline wallet/voucher partial payment Add-ons: paid seat + basic bag + “flex/insurance” on/off in different sequences Timing: immediate checkout vs. leave cart for 24 hours, then return via abandoned-cart email Route types: domestic short-haul vs. long-haul vs. one-way multi-city Frankenstein OTAs vs. direct: metasearch deep links vs. airline site vs. app-exclusive promos Price-freeze toggles: activate a hold/free option first, then reprice and remove it Questions for the hive mind: Has anyone seen a repeatable, non-mythical drop in the final total after the remove-extras dance? Do certain airlines/OTAs reliably play ball-or is this pure RNG? Any “gotchas” at check-in where removed extras mysteriously reattach like a cursed baggage fee? Ethical/ToS landmines to avoid so we don’t get our bookings voided or our accounts ban-hammered? If you’ve got screenshots, logs, or a spreadsheet worthy of a TED Talk, even better. If this works, we’ve basically invented couponing for airline upsell algorithms. If not, I’ll go back to my usual hobby of arguing with a baggage sizer.

Low Price Air Ticket

BargainTrekker

Is it just me, or do airline checkout pages behave like moody teenagers-sulking when you want the bare fare, suddenly agreeable when you act like you’ll buy every add-on under the sun, then ghost you if you clear cookies?

Here’s the possibly bonkers idea: has anyone systematically tested whether baiting an airline/OTA with extras (seat, insurance, flex, bags) lowers the base fare during the funnel-and then ditching those extras at the last step actually keeps the lower total? I’ve seen the base fare nudge down mid-funnel on a couple of sites when I click “yes” to a bag and “maybe” to insurance, but I can’t tell if I’m hallucinating, being manipulated, or accidentally inventing Schrodinger’s carry-on.

I’m thinking of a community experiment where we all try the same itinerary across different variables and report if total price shifts stick after stripping extras. Variables to flip:

Order of operations: add everything first, then remove; vs. start barebones and add late
Device: mobile app vs. mobile web vs. desktop
Cookies/tracking: fresh incognito vs. returning user vs. logged-in loyalty account
Currency and point-of-sale: local currency vs. airline’s home currency vs. “creative” currency via foreign OTA
Payment method: major card vs. low-fee debit vs. BNPL vs. airline wallet/voucher partial payment
Add-ons: paid seat + basic bag + “flex/insurance” on/off in different sequences
Timing: immediate checkout vs. leave cart for 24 hours, then return via abandoned-cart email
Route types: domestic short-haul vs. long-haul vs. one-way multi-city Frankenstein
OTAs vs. direct: metasearch deep links vs. airline site vs. app-exclusive promos
Price-freeze toggles: activate a hold/free option first, then reprice and remove it

Questions for the hive mind:

Has anyone seen a repeatable, non-mythical drop in the final total after the remove-extras dance?
Do certain airlines/OTAs reliably play ball-or is this pure RNG?
Any “gotchas” at check-in where removed extras mysteriously reattach like a cursed baggage fee?
Ethical/ToS landmines to avoid so we don’t get our bookings voided or our accounts ban-hammered?

If you’ve got screenshots, logs, or a spreadsheet worthy of a TED Talk, even better. If this works, we’ve basically invented couponing for airline upsell algorithms. If not, I’ll go back to my usual hobby of arguing with a baggage sizer.