Airlines are harnessing lessons from a still-emerging academic field known as behavioral economics to nudge customers into spending more.
Airlines are well aware of these tendencies and how they drive our decisions. So to save money on flights, customers need to understand how the airfare shopping experience has been engineered to exploit our biases.Airlines will use a technique called “social proof” to upsell certain products, such as trip protection, by suggesting that many other travelers are adding it to their itineraries. Yet these marketing tactics don’t offer much real-world value for consumers, according to experts.
“Once I’m four or five clicks into purchasing this, the price has changed completely,” Lamberton says, suggesting that airlines will withhold information until later in the process, when consumers are less likely to start over. “If you want to overcome these biases, you will have to slow down and give yourself the space to pay attention to these things,” Lamberton suggests.Budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier offer rock-bottom fares while charging more for basic add-ons like carry-on bags and seat selection. Skipping the extra fees means forgoing amenities that many travelers consider vital.
For example, travelers with small children may be more willing to pay for seat selection to ensure the family sits together. For solo travelers, paying $15 to select a seat might not be worth it.