Will clearing your search history make flight prices cheaper? Experts reveal the surprising truth

Ever stepped away from your computer partway through booking a flight only to find the price has skyrocketed when you return? Coincidence? Or is the internet playing tricks on you?

Some travelers swear by “hacks” to avoid increases like clearing cookies, going incognito, or switching devices. These price-savvy travelers believe that airlines and travel sites track your activity and raise prices based on your interest.

But is this just paranoia, or is there some truth to the theory?

While it’s a popular theory among travelers, there’s no solid proof that repeatedly searching for a flight triggers a price hike.

According to industry experts, those rising fares have less to do with websites spying on your activity and more with the basics of supply and demand. The odds are that there will likely be fewer available seats every time you check out the flight information. Flights fluctuate in price constantly — but it’s market trends, not your browsing history, that are usually to blame.

“There is a common misconception that repeated search behavior will lead to not just a different, but higher outcome,” Going’s travel expert Katy Nastro said.

Nastro added that these so-called hacks to guarantee a lower price are just internet hearsay.

“There is no credible data source that suggests repeated searching is tracked and therefore manipulated to higher pricing,” she concluded.

Nastro and her team run thousands of flight searches weekly, and have even tested out the different theories, but did not see any changes. She summed up the price fluctuations as simply “seeing the market move in real time.”

Airlines, she explained, have “fare buckets,” or a certain number of seats they want to sell for a specific price at a certain moment. When those sell out, the price will seemingly increase. Nastro also noted that airlines use dynamic algorithms that reevaluate costs in real time; so if something occurs at your destination, the price of fuel jumps, or a big group books a chunk of seats, it’s likely that the price for a ticket might go up.

Additionally, explains Nastro: “When you see prices fluctuate in real time, you are seeing the airlines trying to adjust based on those factors.” They have fare buckets.”

Think of it like this: Airlines allocate a set number of seats to each bucket for a certain period, though those allocations can shift based on the factors mentioned earlier. Once fare bucket X sells out, a new, often higher-priced bucket takes its place. So when you notice sudden jumps or drops in airfare, you’re likely seeing fare buckets updating in real time.

“When you see prices fluctuate in real time, you are seeing the airlines trying to adjust based on those factors,” Nastro said.

Sophia Lin, who oversees travel and local products at Google Search, agreed that “ticket prices are constantly changing and being updated across different data providers, even from second to second. And every day, our systems are computing an enormous number of possible ticket combinations for trips around the world.”

“Incognito mode, browsing history, search history, or switching devices won’t impact the prices we show on Google Flights.” She adds, “Unfortunately for deal-seekers, it’s not true,” Lin said.

Dollar Flight Club founder Jesse Neugarten weighed in as well, claiming that what travelers are really seeing is a mix of normal fare changes and outdated or cached information — a combo that can make it seem like prices are jumping for no reason.

“While it’s a widely held belief that flight prices go up the more you search for a route, there’s no hard evidence that browsing history or repeated searches alone directly cause price increases,” he explained. “Searching in incognito mode or clearing cookies might prevent your browser from showing cached results, which can make it appear like prices have changed

“In most cases, the underlying pricing, especially when powered by predictive algorithms, isn’t tied to your cookies. It’s fluctuating due to real-time changes in inventory and demand.”