Why you should never book flights on your phone – and it could even be costing you money

A SHOPPING expert has revealed why you should never use your phone to book your flights and how it could actually be costing you more money.

The invention of the smartphone has undoubtedly made our lives simpler in so many ways, but there are also ways in which they can hinder us rather than help.

It turns out that using our phones to pay for our holidays could actually lead to us paying more than we should be, for a simple reason.

Drip pricing strategies work by showing a smaller price up front before slowly adding costs on as we progress through the buying process.

By the time we are ready to confirm the purchase at the final checkout screen, the thought of going through the whole thing again is really unappealing.

That leaves people reluctant to cancel the purchase and start again, so more often than not, they just begrudgingly accept whatever cost they are quoted in the end.

With airlines tacking on costs for extra baggage, booking fees and seat selection, the prices of flights can very quickly add up as we go through the booking process.

Yet instead of starting again and looking for a better deal elsewhere, phone users are much more inclined to just pay.

Shelle Santana, assistant professor of marketing at Bentley University explained why that is in an article for Mint.

She said: “When firms employ a drip pricing strategy, the initial price is almost always lower than a competitor’s all-in price.

“But once they start to add on amenities such as a checked bag, seat options, etc., that difference in price across firms diminishes and sometimes reverses.

“Consumers perceive high search costs associated with starting their decision process over, and they think they will save less money than they actually will.”

Simply put, shoppers will arrive at the checkout screen and fork out for the extras assuming it will be too much faff to start over.

The revelation that people are lazier shoppers when using their phones came from a survey of 3,250 people from Pymnts.com.

The advice is to use a laptop or a desktop computer instead of a phone when paying for holidays, and to use multiple tabs to allow browsing for deals across different sites.

Meanwhile, this is how to save money on soaring plane ticket prices.

This money expert explained why it’s cheaper to book flights on some days instead of others.