IP address

[#1]

I have been trying to book a BA flight but have only checked prices so far.  Whenever I go back to check again, I find that the price has gone up, but their website automatically comes up with my route.  I suspect that this is just sales inflation - they know you are interested and have you on the hook, and try to force you into a quick decision by raising the price each time you check.  I always turn off cookies but wonder how they know.  Is is possibly my IP address that they recognise ?

If that is the case, how do I change my IP address without having to use VPNs and IP hiding sites ?  I have tried ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew but that does not change the IP!  When I do it, the internet goes down but when I renew it is the same IP address as before.  Do I have to wait any length of time for that ?

Any experience / knowledge of these sales tricks and how to overcome them would be appreciated.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

I have tried ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew but that does not change the IP!  When I do it, the internet goes down but when I renew it is the same IP address as before.  Do I have to wait any length of time for that ?

@WinfredVaughan I'm afraid that wont achieve anything. All you are doing is reallocating the 'private' IP that your device is allocated by your router which will usuually allocate the same one to the device. Anyway, that is not the IP address that the BA site will be seeing. It will be seeing your 'public' IP address that your router is allocated by PlusNet. The only possible way to change that would be to disconnect your router from the internet for at least a couple of hours and then it MIGHT be allocated a different one on reconnection. However even supposedly 'dynamic' public IP addresses are 'sticky' these days and there is still a good chance you would get the same IP.

[#3]

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@WinfredVaughan wrote:

I have been trying to book a BA flight but have only checked prices so far.  Whenever I go back to check again, I find that the price has gone up, ...

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@WinfredVaughan 

Have you considered that seat prices fluctuate according to factors such as availability and time remaining before the flight?

The number of available seats you may see is not necessarily a true number either because some organisations may have been allocated blocks of seats which can later be released for general sale.

[#4]

Quite common in the travel & holiday industry.  Supply and demand. As interest increases up goes the price. By repeatedly viewing the same product you’re  increasing the demand . Effectively you’re bidding against yourself for a limited product.

[#5]

Thanks MisterW.  That did it.  I disconnected for half an hour and when I re-connected I got a new IP address !

So I went onto the website, and lo and behold the previous lower price offer was back !  So that is obviously what they are doing.  If they see you are interested, they up the price next time you log on to make you think that there is competition !  It did not do them any good, because in the meantime, I had found a much cheaper price elsewhere !  If they had not raised the price, I would not have looked elsewhere and they would have got the business.  They lost about £1,000 of business for the sake of 'nickle-and-diming' me for £10 each time I logged out !  I saved about £150 in the end.  Loyalty should pay but it doesn't sometimes.