You know all the tricks. Search for flights on a Tuesday only. Switch your VPN to a different country. Open incognito mode and clear your browser.
Apparently, so does JetBlue.
In a since deleted tweet, the company told a customer who tagged the company over a $230 increase in just one day to clear their “cache and cookies.”
“I love flying @JetBlue but a $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy,” wrote the user on X. “I’m just trying to make it to a funeral.”
In response, the company told the user, who goes by Nugg, to “try clearing your cache and cookies or booking with an incognito window. We’re sorry for your loss.”
The user’s post got a little over 100,000 views before JetBlue deleted it, but of the two comments, one is missing (the deleted JetBlue response) and the other was, conveniently, a screenshot of JetBlue’s response by another user who told Nugg “this post will be removed soon. Take a screenshot of it if you think you’ll need it.”
In a statement to Fortune, the company said it does not determine fares via personal browsing information.
“The reply from our JetBlue crewmember on social media was incorrect, and we apologize for the error. JetBlue fares on JetBlue.com and our mobile app are not determined by cached data or other personal information,” the company statement read.
“Pricing is based on real-time availability and is managed through our reservation system. Fares can change at any moment as seats are purchased or as inventory is adjusted based on demand, and are not guaranteed until a purchase is completed,” the statement continued.
JetBlue is hardly the first airline to fall into the limelight for potentially changing its prices based on a user’s browser history.
The Federal Trade Commission has studied surveillance pricing methods since 2024, and found retailers often used people’s personal information to set individualized pricing information. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said he “directed staff to start examining” if new disclosure rules are needed by companies during a Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month.
It might not make a big difference
Experts say opting out of cookies really doesn’t make a difference.
“Opting out of cookies doesn’t make you anonymous online,” said Kate Quinlan, a senior editor at All About Cookies, an informational website about online safety. “True privacy requires browser-level tools like VPNs and ad blockers, which block a wider range of trackers that follow you across the web beyond just cookies.”
According to a California audit last month which analyzed open network traffic across more than 7,600 popular websites scanned from California, over half (55%) of sites set advertising cookies even after users explicitly rejected them. More than three-quarters (78%) of consent banners failed to enforce the user’s choice at all, while Google ignored 86% of opt-out requests.
However, when it comes to airline fares, Quinlan told Fortune that it may help after all.
“Clearing your cookies before searching for flights is still worth doing. Websites can use your browsing history to adjust what prices you see, and wiping that data resets what they think they know about you, making it more likely a lower fare will show up if one exists. Just keep in mind that flight prices also shift constantly based on demand and timing, so there’s no guarantee a clean browser alone will land you a deal.”
There are already two states with laws on the books about this. Maryland is set to become the first state to ban surveillance pricing in retail grocery stores after the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act passed through the legislature last week. Then, California proposed a bill that would prohibit retailers from setting customized prices based on personally identifiable information. Similar legislation has been introduced in New York, New Jersey, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
