A TikToker Swears This Viral Hack Could Save You Up To 50% On Flights. Here’s What Travel Experts Say.

Flying anywhere right now is not a cheap endeavor.

Jet fuel prices are high due to the war in Iran; reports show that one gallon of jet fuel costs roughly $4.90, which is more than double the cost of jet fuel last year.

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People are doing all that they can to find more affordable flights while this goes on. Enter one viral TikTok video, which claims to be the money-saving airfare hack you need to know.

In the video, TikTok user Lilly’s Tips says you can save up to 50% on your flight when using a public computer at a library to book. “The reason for this is because library computers don’t use cookie tracking, they’re on a different IP address and they don’t use device fingerprinting tied to your search history,” she said in the video.

She also claimed that there are browser extension tools that can help you accomplish this as well.

Travel experts have concerns about these suggested workarounds, and want you to know that these travel hacks don’t really work. Here’s what to know — and how to actually save money on flights.

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Your flight price isn’t going to drop if you check your fare from a library computer or use a browser plug-in.

In response to the solutions suggested in the viral TikTok, Kyle Potter, executive editor at Thrifty Traveler, said, “This is all nonsense.” Using a library computer to find a cheaper flight or downloading a special browser plug-in sadly isn’t the money-saving solution of our dreams.

“It’s just another variation of the ‘book flights on Tuesdays’ and ‘clear your cookies so airlines don’t track your searches’ tips that have been breathlessly passed around for the last decade and counting,” Potter said.

Unfortunately, none of these so-called hacks work, he added. “Airlines aren’t tracking your searches, period. That is not how airfare is distributed and sold,” he said.

“In reality, when you see a flight price change in real time, it’s not because they’re saving your information on a browser and it’s being cached … there is no way that the airline has all this information and is using it against you,” said Katy Nastro, the aviation correspondent at Flighty, a consumer flight tracking app.

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VPNs, or virtual private networks that hide your IP address, can occasionally save you some money, but “it is relatively rare [and] not the be-all, end-all fix for finding cheaper fares,” Potter added.

Nastro said she’s personally tried this library trick and it hasn’t worked for her. In fact, when she went to the library to test this out, she searched airfare prices on both the library computer and her phone only to get higher prices on the library computer two out of three times.

“Granted, it was higher by $5, $10. Nothing really extraordinary, but it’s worth noting,” Nastro said.

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If someone does save major bucks while booking a flight with a library computer, it’s likely they saw a mistake fare (which is an error fare) or used an online travel agency to book their flight, which adds up in itself with fees and other costs, Nastro added.

“I err on the side of caution whenever there’s a hack that comes to light, especially on social media,” Nastro said.

Regarding the tip to use browser extensions to mine cheap flights, it seems to largely be a flight aggregator, just like Skyscanner or Google Flights. “It doesn’t exactly sound like anything new,” Nastro said.

Flexibility and advanced planning are the best ways to save money on flights.

“My issue with all of these tactics is that they’re easy-to-understand explanations for the frustrating, constantly changing airfares we all know and loathe,” Potter said. “And they become the go-to solution … that doesn’t actually solve anything.”

The best way to get cheap flights is by being flexible regarding the days that you travel, Potter noted, or being flexible enough to “jump on a great deal whenever you find one,” he said.

Perhaps that means selecting a few destination options for your summer trip and seeing which location has the cheapest flights. Or flying home on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday.

A lot of people expect flight prices to go down when the conflict in Iran ends, but that hasn’t happened, Nastro said.

“That wishful thinking has not occurred since March. And even if it did, flight prices wouldn’t just deflate automatically, similar to what we see at the pump,” Nastro said. “The gas prices at the pump are much more reactive, whereas jet fuel prices are much less reactive.”

Another way to combat higher prices is by booking in advance. “In general, for a peak season, the best advice is to start looking and booking in an opposite season,” Nastro said.

This means you should book holiday travel in the summer and vice versa, she added. “I personally am going to start thinking about my summer travels in December, January, February, especially because we don’t know how much longer these elevated jet fuel prices are going to impact airfare,” she added.

“Waiting … in hopes that you’re going to find a great deal, especially for the winter holidays at this point in time, is the worst thing that you can do,” she added.

As for leaning on fancy browser extensions or library visits for cheaper deals? Don’t get your hopes up.

“Please go to the library. Just don’t sit down at a computer thinking it’s going to save you hundreds of dollars on flights. Get a good book instead,” Potter said.

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