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Here’s Why Travel Experts Say Don’t Book Flights On Your Mobile Phone

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The cost of travel has skyrocketed this year. After two years of a confusing pandemic, the rise in travel demand and low availability of staff resulted in inflated airfares across the board, but as travel experts have noted, those who are booking flights on their mobile phones are being hit the hardest, being more susceptible to paying more.

Businessman Booking Flight On His Phone

This is a particularly worrying statement, seeing that in the current climate, up to 48% of adults aged 20-40 in the United States shop on their phones – a far higher number than the global average of 34%. The data, obtained from a survey of 3,250 American customers carried out by Klarna, is precisely what has analysts concerned:

The Hidden Dangers Of Drip Pricing When Shopping For Flights

Young Woman Using Her Phone At The Airport

Drip pricing is a term employed in the industry to refer to the infamous add-on fees on flights. While a much cheaper ticket fare is usually displayed on the initial page, this is generally a ‘starting price', or merely the seat itself: hold luggage, in-flight entertainment, meals and seat selection all come at an additional, and usually crippling, price.

During the purchasing process, as the customer proceeds in ticking boxes, adding their travel essentials or customizing their trip, the cost begins increasing dramatically. In fact, adding luggage on some flights can be more expensive than a standard Economy seat. Interestingly, heavy phone usage may be a contributing factor to the overcharging of some.

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Young Woman Looking Distressed, Upset After Reading Something On Her Phone

Pymnts.com, a website dedicated to analyzing the role of payments in new tech, the majority of travel service purchases were made on a mobile device in February 2022. As proved by Pymnts.com, more than half (51.4%) of travel purchases in the U.S. were made on mobile in February of this year.

The data comprises the month of February alone, but we're guessing the trend hasn't reversed based on the record-breaking profits some airlines are reporting, and the role of mobiles. As early as 2021, a study conducted by Marketing Science confirmed shoppers are induced to make ‘suboptimal' choices in ‘drip-pricing situations'.

Female Traveler Booking Flights On Her Phone

Travelers Are Less Likely To Compare Flight Prices In Drip-Pricing Situations

They observed travelers usually compare initial prices between competing carriers as opposed to the final price, which is higher most of the time. Regarding this phenomenon, Shelle Santana, a co-author in the study and Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bentley University, stated companies adopting the ‘drip pricing' strategy usually come out winning.

Man Using His Laptop, Digital Nomad Concept

The initial price is almost always lower than a competitor's all-in price‘, Santana was quoted saying, alluding to the never-ending battle between low-cost, drip-priced airlines and other full service ones: ‘But once they start to add on amenities such as a checked bag, seat options, etc., that different in price (across firms) diminishes and sometimes reverses.'

As Santana puts it, shopping on the phone influences customers to accept whatever extra charge has been applied to the original product, as re-starting the entire process, a decision that usually entails losing all information provided, or opening up a new tab to find cheaper options, is perceived as time-consuming and a bigger hassle (in a small screen).

Young Female American Traveler Holding Up A U.S. Passport Case As She Uses Her Computer, International Travel Concept

Booking flights can take several long minutes, as you add your name, personal information, passport details and make selections, so giving up halfway through over the cost of ‘add-ons', under the notion there is no way to circumvent them, and that full-service airlines are always the costlier pick, is discouraging for many.

Customers End Up Paying More Finalizing Purchases On Their Mobiles

Attractive female passenger of airplane read news from networks via smartphone and wifi on board, young woman sending message on phone traveling by plane in first class connecting to wireless on phone

The researchers were surprised to learn that, even after the final price had risen, customers buying tickets on their phones were extremely ‘unwilling' to compare different providers: ‘consumers perceive high search costs associated with starting their decision process over, and they think they will save less money than they actually will', added Santana.

Just think for a sec: how many times have you switched between apps when booking a trip? There is the airline's own app to account for, then there's either Booking.com or AirBnB when it comes to accommodation, the calendar app, where you'll need to check your own availability, and of course, flight-search tools like Google Flights or Skyscanner, among others.

Traveler Observes Sunwing Airplane From Boarding Area At Airport

That is a lot of tabs active on your phone browser simultaneously, and no matter how fast you are with your fingers, the chances of overlooking relevant information, or even forgetting that you had a secondary tab for comparison open in the first place is substantially higher. On larger screens, the decision-making process tends to be more comfortable.

In being comfortable, it may help shoppers think clearly before reaching for their wallets. There is an even earlier study to corroborate this: back in 2018, the Journal of Marketing analyzed customer behavior from more than one million sessions on a shopping website, and their results inform us those who concluded purchases from their phones paid higher fees.

Woman With Luggage At Airport

Additionally, the higher conversion rate was far more noticeable with higher-priced products, a category comprising flight tickets. Concluding, Santana advised her fellow travelers to ‘always shop for travel on a desktop': ‘I like to have several tabs open at once and toggle between them to make sure I understand price differences and drivers across firms‘.

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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com

Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.


Muhammad khalid

Tuesday 15th of November 2022

Useful information for further travel thanks.

Lauri

Friday 11th of November 2022

This almost happened to me.. fees and taxes are extra...bs!!! I called them out on it.. and didn't have to pay extra..they just dropped it because they were taking advantage of me after my mother passed away... ya gotta ve smart..I called My Bank. Cancelled my card and the bank is on to them now.

islamujeres

Wednesday 9th of November 2022

many times (not always) i found good price in google flight for example for MEX-CDG with airfrance.you click from google flight and you are redirected on the airfrance website on the payment page Searching the same flight starting from airfrance home page, often results in higher prices than the ones on google flights that's marketing

Always comparing

Wednesday 9th of November 2022

haha, I like that. Yes steal money from these smartphone zombies, I am almost always using my PC at home to buy such expensive things like flights or hostels/hotels. There is oly one exception: this year I noticed there were some cheaper prizes on booking.com for smartphone users, so I searched on PC (better overview, how is airbnb?) and then searched again on Smartphone.

For the flights: I seldom buy the extras like reserved seats, it is not important. And the entertainment bs is just stupid and for the masses, who cant live without their propaganda TV.

JC

Tuesday 8th of November 2022

Take any flight find me two passengers paying the same amount.You cannot period! Its been like that for a long time and it will not change .You can even go further and say people using Apple devices are offered higher prices and often pay those prices .