Met a guy in a Tokyo hostel who booked flights for $12 by using a VPN trick

I was swapping stories in the common room of a cheap hostel in Shinjuku last year, and this guy from Sweden told me he always sets his VPN to the country where the airline is based before checking prices. He showed me his booking for a domestic flight in Japan that was normally $80, he got it for $12 by routing through a Japanese IP. Anyone else tried something like that or found a similar trick for specific countries?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessaperry9d ago

That $12 flight story reminds me of my friend Dave who tried the VPN trick for a flight in Australia. He set his VPN to an Australian server and booked a Qantas flight from Sydney to Melbourne that was listed at $150 on his normal browser. He ended up paying $35 for it. The wild part was that he checked the same flight on his phone without the VPN and it was back to $150. So yeah the trick works but you gotta be careful with your cache and cookies.

laura_black9d ago

35 dollars for a Sydney to Melbourne flight? That's insane. I paid more than that for a sandwich at the airport last time I was there. Dave basically stole that ticket. Airlines are going to start banning people for this stuff if it gets too popular. I'd be too paranoid to ever try it myself.

hannah_west399d ago

Laura bought a $12 sandwich at Sydney airport once and that was a ripoff. The real trick with VPNs is clearing everything - cache, cookies, location data. If you don't do that, the airline will still see your real IP. Dave must have done it right. I've done the same thing for domestic flights in Australia and saved about 60% each time. Just don't try it with international bookings. That's where they flag you.