Different Travel Deals Based On Your Browsing History?

I've heard in the past that when searching for airfare or hotels that sometimes if you clear the "cookies" out of your web browser that you can often get a different price because the website will not know that you are not a new "visitor" searching for that specific flight or property.

Well an article in yesterday's USA Today  shows that many airlines and hotels use this practice on a regular basis. They take the data from your web history and use it to see if you are a frequent traveler and then price accordingly. The difference is not startling in most cases, but it's still noticeable and adds up over time, I would imagine. The bigger problem is that it could be considered by some as a form of discrimination because it offers a similar product for a different price based on a set of circumstances that are unknown to the buyer.

But the most shocking part is that there is a move to allow airlines to collect more information to give passengers, "easy access to all of the options to add value to their travel plans." Through collection of demographic information and flight information they say they could fit a travel experience and extra options to a traveler's preferences. But privacy advocates warn that this could amount to a different pricing scheme based on previous purchases, travel profile and other data such as age, nationality, marital status, etc.

I'm not usually someone who minds when a website takes my data and gives me more specific info...I know that makes me strange, but I find it fascinating when I am looking at a pair of glasses or a hotel in a certain city and then suddenly I start seeing ads for that...it just shows how good marketers are becoming. But when it worries me is when you could potentially pay a different price just because of that search history. Will be interesting to watch this issue develop.  

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