Dies renewing your ip gets you better rates on travel websites?

A co-worker recently mentioned this to me:

He advised that When searching airfares on travel websites, it is a good practice to renew the ip address of the browser.

He said the reason behind this is:

The site would be able to determine if you've been on the site for over a certain amount of time, interpret this as the user going to competitor's websites, and the result would be the site would increase the fares shown.

I cannot find any reliable information for or against this theory.  Can someone provide a reliable source of wheter this is true (or not)?

Please do not advise to "just go to snopes.com".  I'm looking for a link to information specifically about this question.

Thank you.
brianp111Asked:
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Paul MacDonaldDirector, Information SystemsCommented:
I don't buy it.  
First off, there's too much overhead.
Secondly, I don't know what you're doing, so why would I penalize you for taking your time on my site?
Third, if I think you're visiting a competitor, why would I raise my rates?  Woudln't I lower them instead?
I don't think you'll get an authoritative answer to this.  If any travel site does it, they wouldn't want the public to know.
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lherrouCommented:
brianp111,

I can't speak to travel websites specifically, but I do know of cases where this type of thing has been done. Dell is one such example where I've actually seen it happen - went to the Dell site, got one list of prices and options, then looked at competitor sites, and then returned to Dell... the prices and options were now different. I opened a different browser, went to the Dell site, and lo and behold, the original prices and options were shown. This was several years ago, and I don't believe they do it any more, but certainly it is possible.

Cheers,
LHerrou

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wittysloganCommented:
just go to the site using 2 separate computers.  see if there is a diference.  also flush your cookies and see if there is a difference.


I can see why a company might increase prices.  Especially in England where we have easyjet and ryannair.  Their business model is based on getting lower  prices the sooner you book. So if they see that you have already been on their site they can bump up the price and you would just expect that and pay the new price.  I can see it would be too much overhead to check your IP address.
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brianp111Author Commented:
Flushing cookies is the best rule of thumb to follow.
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