China’s Lunar New Year travellers try to outsmart algorithms for cheaper fares

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.

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.