Where should consumers draw the line in an era where the tactics are profit-maximizing on both sides?
Source: When is a ‘travel hack’ unethical? – The Washington Post
There are ethical and not-so-ethical methods to secure the best travel deal.
Travel hacking is loosely defined as strategies for getting better travel deals. According to the article cited, travel hacking may be legal but not always ethical, especially when the practice involves deception. This post is a summary of the article.
Why do it? Price seems to be best when you choose the home base of the airline, and the U.S. dollar is always the most expensive option.
Ethical Strategies
1. Look online for hotel rates, then call a hotel to negotiate a better rate. No problem, no deception involved here.
2. Clearing your web browser’s cookies before going onto a travel site. The site won’t know you’ve been looking to book travel arrangements and will therefore be more likely to give you a good rate. Again, this is thought to be ethical because it doesn’t involve deception.
Probably Unethical
1. Using a different country other than your own on an airline’s website. Airline websites are multi-lingual and multi-currency. If you change your country (after first deleting cookies, no doubt) on an airline’s website, you might get a better deal. Unfortunately, if an airline figures out what you did, they might not honor the ticket.
2. Using a “hidden city” airline ticket to finish a flight at a stopover instead of the true destination. This can save you a lot of money, but it violates airlines’ fare rules. If you used a travel agent to book your trip, finishing a flight at a stopover could get the travel agent in trouble — the article doesn’t cite how — and it could lead to higher fares across the board: airlines will have figured out what travelers are doing and raise their rates to make sure there is no benefit to this practice.
3. Changing your IP address to a different country. Different countries have different local economies and standards of living. Should a traveler in one country pay the same rate for airfare as a U.S. citizen, who probably has a higher standard of living?
4. Using the title “Dr.” when you’re a Ph.D. because it might get you preferential treatment. This one is up for grabs. On one hand, people feel entitled to use a title they’ve earned; on the other, I’m not sure what “preferential” treatment someone might get because an airline crew thinks they are a medical doctor. As an experienced traveler, I’ve never seen a call for “all doctors can board now,” nor have I ever witnessed a flight attendant saying anything like, “Since you’re a doctor, we’d like you to have a better meal than everyone else.” (Yes, I’m being facetious. That’s the point.) In fact, the only time I’ve ever heard a flight crew use the term “doctor” on board is when a traveler has been sick and the crew has asked if there is a doctor on board the flight. One word of caution: If you’re a Ph.D. and you use the title “Dr.” liberally, don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a situation where a member of a flight crew asks, “But I thought you were a doctor?”
All travelers want to get the best deal. My one suggestion to ask yourself: If an airline found out how you got your deal, would they honor it?
Au revoir!
Image of plane landing by Modes Rodriguez, Flickr, CCBY 2.0.