Finally cracked the best way to fly between smaller airports in Europe

Spent nearly two hours searching for a route from Bologna to Bilbao last week and kept hitting dead ends until I realized Ryanair's website hides half their connections unless you clear your cookies first. Has anyone else found that trick actually works for getting cheaper fares?

2 comments

2 Comments

joelwells1mo ago

Oh man, that cookie clearing trick is real, I swear by it now. I was trying to book a flight from Marseille to Prague last month and the prices were nuts until I nuked my browser history and suddenly a cheap option popped up that wasn't there before. It's like they punish you for being a returning customer or something, which is super frustrating but also kind of genius in a shady way. I've also noticed that if you search incognito mode on Chrome, you'll sometimes see routes that just don't show up otherwise, especially the less popular days. It's a pain to remember to do every time, but it's saved me a solid chunk of cash more than once.

tessa_clark741mo ago

Wait, does clearing cookies really pull up routes that were literally invisible before, or does it just drop the price on ones you already saw? @joelwells I'm with you on the incognito thing, but I feel like sometimes even that doesn't shake the algorithm enough, especially on Ryanair where their site is just a mess of hidden options. Have you ever tried using a different device entirely, like switching from your phone to a laptop or a buddy's computer, to see if that forces a totally fresh set of results? I've been burned booking last minute for fire station shifts and wonder if there's a deeper hack to force their hand on the actual route list, not just the price.