So, is there a way we can purchase airplane tickets at a lower cost? Thankfully for us, there's a relatively easy and completely legal hack that will ensure we get airplane tickets at the best rate. Since airlines often change the price of a ticket based on location, you can use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to change your IP address to that of your destination.
For example, if you are looking for a flight from New York to Bucharest, you can change your IP address so that a flight search engine registers you as being in Romania, where flight prices are likely to be cheaper than in the U.S.
So, how can you get this done? In order to do this effectively, you should use an incognito browser window, so that the cookies won't identify you as a repeat visitor. This will also avoid sites that you have used in the past. Remember that some countries are also required to display airline fares with taxes, while others are not.
You also won't necessarily even have to choose your destination. Several forums have testimonies from users who claim they managed to save money on tickets by changing their VPN to that of a low-income country like India or Mexico.
Systems Engineer Brandon Blinderman for the content delivery network Akamai Technologies suggests that you also invest in a paid subscription such Tunnelbear - this costs about $50 a year as opposed to opting for one of the many providers that offer a limited amount data for free. According to Brandon, they're free for a reason. Nevertheless, for what it's worth, a paid VPN can save you money on more than just tickets.
It also prevents your internet service provider from hiking up prices for things you might be interested in based on your browsing history. According to Brandon, it's a simple privacy practice. "Even if your Internet Service Provider can't see what you're browsing if your site traffic is encrypted, they can still see what site you are visiting in the first place," Brandon says, adding that "This can be used to build a profile of you, which in turn is used to target ads at you."
