The Lunar New Year holiday is among the priciest time to travel in China, but this year, Chinese internet user Lan He managed to score a one-way flight ticket from Kunming, Yunnan province, to her parents’ home about two hours away in Jian, Jiangxi province, for less than 500 yuan (US$68).
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The trick? Fool the algorithms, according to Lan.
Before Lan booked her flight, she unleashed a string of social media posts complaining about costly holiday airfares. “I’m not going because flight tickets are too expensive,” she wrote, singling out some of China’s most widely used travel booking platforms. “Look at me, Qunar, Trip.com, Tongcheng, Fliggy: I’ll uninstall you all if you keep increasing the price.”
Five days after, Lan said she found the cost of her desired ticket went down by more than half from 1,200 yuan.
Qunar, Trip.com, Tongcheng and Fliggy did not respond to requests for comment. Fliggy is operated by Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.
Lan is among a growing number of Chinese internet users who are looking for ways to fight what they describe as Big Data-enabled discrimination. They believe that online platforms charge existing customers and frequent visitors higher prices, and occasionally withhold discounts from them.