Skyscanner cookie policy

What are cookies and similar technologies?

A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your device (e.g., computer or smartphone), via your web browser, at the request of the websites you visit or applications you use, and that stores information on your device for a limited period of time. Cookies allow Skyscanner to recognize you and your device each time you visit Skyscanner.

Some of the cookies we use are removed as soon as you leave our Website or App because we do not need to store this information between visits. By contrast, “persistent” cookies enable our services or tags to recognize you when you make return visits to us, and automatically expire when they reach a specified expiry date unless you delete them earlier. Persistent cookies placed on your device by Skyscanner will never be stored for longer than 2 years from the date of your last visit. There are tools available to check the expiry date on cookies, and this functionality may be provided by your browser.

We may also use similar technologies referred to as “tags,” “tracking pixels,” “code snippets,” “tracking URLs,” “local storage,” “session storage,” “IndexedDB,” and “scripts,” as well as “software development kits” (“SDKs”) and “device identifiers” in our apps. These technologies are implemented on our services and may be used together with text cookies to enable information to be stored on, or transmitted to and from, the device you use to access Skyscanner.

In this Policy, we collectively refer to all of these app and web technologies as “cookies and similar technologies.”

We may from time to time add, remove, or update the cookies and web technologies we use across our services.

You can view the main cookies and similar technologies we use at the date of this Policy in the What cookies and similar technologies do we use and how can you opt out of them? section of this Policy.

Purpose of essential cookies or similar technologies

These cookies and similar technologies collect essential data to make sure the Website and App work properly. You can’t opt out of these cookies, because without them Skyscanner wouldn’t work. Skyscanner uses these for the following purposes:

• to recognize whether you are a first-time or return visitor to our Website and to tailor the presentation of our services, such as by recalling your language and currency preferences or your most recent searches;
• to record whether or not you complete a booking with a Travel Provider that you have been redirected to via our Platforms, and to identify, investigate, and fix problems or errors in those journeys;
• to provide functionality such as trip planning based on bookings on Skyscanner and our Travel Providers’ sites;
• to remember information that is essential to determining how your search results are displayed, such as your language and currency preferences, your recent search criteria, and the product features we make available to you based on factors such as the device you are using or your city- or country-level geographic location;
• to remember your search criteria such as routes, dates, and the number of travelers as you move between pages, to pass this information to the travel suppliers that you redirect to from Skyscanner, and to support redirects and bookings working properly;
• to support infrastructure functions such as request routing, rate limiting, and maintaining service reliability;
• to ensure our services are secure from automated agents, bots, scraping, fraudulent activity, abuse, and misuse; and
• to provide login functionality, account functionality, and customer support services.

Some of these essential cookies and similar technologies will be provided by a third party. For more information on these essential technologies maintained by Skyscanner and third parties, please see the “Skyscanner Essential Cookies and Similar Technologies” and “Third-Party Essential Cookies and Similar Technologies” sections of this policy.

Purpose of improved experience (analytics) cookies or similar technologies

Skyscanner uses analytics cookies and similar technologies to collect information about how individuals engage with our Platforms. This information is used for reporting to help us improve the Skyscanner service, to analyze and measure product and feature performance, to understand how travelers use search and redirect journeys, to run and evaluate experiments, and to guide our product development teams based on your activities.

Your data is stored or accessed via cookies and similar technologies that are used to optimize your experience of our Platforms. Without them, our Platforms would feel a lot less easy to use, and you would not benefit from the best experience.

These cookies and similar technologies help improve your experience by allowing us to:

• Recognize you when you access our Platforms from different devices, to provide you with a better experience; and
• monitor, test, and understand more about how our services are discovered, used, and accessed, how features and journeys are performing, and whether product changes and experiments are working as intended.

These cookies help us make decisions about how best to develop or deliver our product to meet your needs. You can opt out of the use of these cookies on your device by following the instructions in the How can I withdraw my consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies? section of this policy.

Purpose of personalized ad (including third-party ad solutions) cookies or similar technologies

When you opt in to ads or offer personalization, we may also use information we collect via cookies and similar technologies to show you personalized ads, marketing, offers, and promotions on Skyscanner, or to send you electronic direct marketing communications when you have opted in to receive these. For example, when you book a hotel using our website or App, or redirect from our Website or App to make a booking with a travel provider, we may use the information we collect via cookies and similar technologies to personalize the ads we show you, or to send you personalized marketing communications relevant to your booking, based on information like your destination, when you are traveling, the services you’ve selected, or which travel supplier you are traveling with. We may also use this information to provide you with relevant information about the destination you are traveling to, such as destination information, up-to-date weather information, or to request reviews and recommendations about the places you have visited.

These cookies and similar technologies help Skyscanner and our marketing service providers improve and measure the success of some advertising campaigns so that you are only shown ads that are relevant to you, and to avoid showing you ads you have already seen.

You can opt out of your information being used by Skyscanner for ads and offers personalization by following the steps set out in the How can I withdraw my consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies? section of this policy below.

When you opt out, we’ll stop using these cookies to learn more about you, so you won’t see ads, offers, or marketing that are as personalized while you are on the Website or the App. However, you’ll continue to see advertising or offers when you’re on the Website or the App based on contextual information on the page or screen you are viewing. For example, if you have searched for a flight to London, then you may be shown an ad relating to a hotel in London within that webpage.

You can find out more about advertising on Skyscanner in the How is your information used for advertising? section of the policy.

We use technologies to personalize ads on certain platforms. When you are opted in to ads personalization on these platforms, we transfer information such as the travel you have searched for or purchased using Skyscanner, the dates you want to travel, and the features you have interacted with to providers such as Facebook, Google, and TikTok (“Third-Party Ad Solutions”) for the purpose of customizing, optimizing, and improving the relevance of the ads you see across the web via the Third-Party Ad Solution’s advertising network.

When we transfer information to Third-Party Ad Solution providers like Facebook, Google, and TikTok, we do so using the tools they provide. They may also use that information to personalize features and content (including ads and recommendations) you see on their networks, to optimize delivery of ads, and for research and development purposes in accordance with their policies (see for example the Facebook Privacy Policy and TikTok Privacy Policy).

The majority of these adverts will be personalized to make them relevant to you and will fall into two different categories. Firstly, adverts that are personalized for you based on information collected by us or by Third-Party Ad Solutions while you use our services, such as your general location (by city or country) and your Skyscanner searches or booking history (“Skyscanner-related Information”). So, for example, if you’ve booked a flight to Rome, you’ll see adverts about hotels in Rome, rather than hotels in Paris (Paris is lovely, but this could be a bit annoying!). Skyscanner-related Information will never include your name, contact details or other information that would enable you to be identified in the offline world. Secondly, adverts that are personalised for you based on information that we have no visibility or control over, and which is instead collected from you by non-Skyscanner Platforms when you have been using other non-Skyscanner websites or platforms. (“non-Skyscanner Platforms”). Collectively, we refer to these as “interest-based” advertisements.

The information required to deliver these interest-based ads will be stored by non-Skyscanner Platforms alongside your IP address and/or a cookie ID, so that you can be served the ads without the non-Skyscanner Platforms needing to store any information that would enable you to be identified in the offline world, like your name or address.

When you are opted in to ads personalization, we may also use information we collect via cookies and similar technologies to show you personalized ads, marketing, and promotions on Skyscanner, or to send you communications when you have opted in to receive these. For example, when you book a flight using Skyscanner or redirect from Skyscanner to make a booking on one of our partner sites, we may use the information we collect via cookies and similar technologies to personalize the ads we show you or to send you personalized marketing communications relevant to your booking based on information like your destination, when you are traveling, the services you’ve selected, or which travel supplier you are traveling with.

You can opt out of your information being used for ads personalization by non-Skyscanner Platforms by following the steps set out in the How can I withdraw my consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies? section of this policy below.

When you opt out of ads personalization, this will stop your information being used for advertising purposes by any of the Third-Party Ad Solutions we use. You will not receive personalized ads from those non-Skyscanner Platforms on the Skyscanner Website or App, or elsewhere as you move around the web. You will still receive ads, which will not be customized to your interests. Please note that any such opt-out of interest-based ads will take some time to reflect within your browsing sessions, as Skyscanner will need to facilitate such a request.

Who controls these cookies and similar technologies?

The cookies and similar technologies on our services are controlled either by us directly or by third parties acting on our behalf. There are also some cookies and similar technologies that we’ve implemented for advertising purposes that are controlled by independent third parties. You can find out more about these third parties and how to opt out of their cookies in the What cookies and similar technologies do we use and how can you opt out of them? section of this policy.

Ads you might see while using non-Skyscanner Platforms

You might see personalized ads for Skyscanner or selected Skyscanner partners once you’ve left the Skyscanner Website or App and are using non-Skyscanner platforms. These ads may be personalized and served to you based on the information Skyscanner and non-Skyscanner Platforms have collected about you. For example, if you have searched for a flight from Edinburgh to London on Skyscanner or another non-Skyscanner Platform, and we have asked non-Skyscanner Platforms to show our ad to individuals who have expressed an interest in traveling to London, the non-Skyscanner Platforms may categorize you within that group and serve you our ad. Sometimes personal data like your email address or phone number is shared with non-Skyscanner Platforms to enable your data to be linked with other information they collect, to create custom audiences or deliver targeted ads.

You can opt out of your information being used for ad personalization on non-Skyscanner Platforms by following the steps set out in the How can I withdraw my consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies? section of this policy below.

Essential cookies and similar technologies

The following tables set out the Skyscanner and third-party essential cookies in use at the date of this policy. The cookies in use will vary depending on the device and services you are using.

Third-party essential cookies and similar technologies

Improved experience (analytics) cookies and similar technologies

The following table lists the cookies used as of the date of this Policy to improve your experience, including cookies used to support experimentation and related reporting on Website and App usage. The cookies used will vary depending on the device and/or service you are using. Where available, we have included a link to opt out of third-party cookies and similar technologies on an individual level. You can do that by visiting the link in the table on each device you use to access Skyscanner.

Personalized Advertising cookies and similar technologies

The following table sets out the cookies and similar technologies used on the date of this Policy to personalize your ads. Where available, we’ve also included a link to opt out of the use of third-party cookies and similar technologies on an individual level. You can do that by visiting the link in the table on each device you use to access Skyscanner.

Skyscanner may also collaborate with other selected brands to understand more about our travelers’ interests, for example, by identifying which Skyscanner travelers engage with particular third-party brands.

Opt out via Skyscanner privacy settings in app or on web

The most effective way to manage cookies and similar technologies on Skyscanner is to use the privacy controls we provide in our product.

You can control the nonessential cookies and similar technologies that are used on your device by visiting https://www.skyscanner.net/privacy-settings on the web or via the Privacy Settings menu in the Skyscanner App. These settings let you opt out of or opt in to our use of the nonessential cookies and similar technologies we use to improve your experience, or to those that we use to personalize the offers or the ads you see.

Browser or device settings

Another way to opt out of cookies and similar technologies is via the settings of the browser or device you’re using to access our services. Internet browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Edge have settings that let you control the way your information is collected and shared. Typically, these browsers let you view all the cookies they’re storing on your device, delete your cache of cookies, and adjust your preferences for future collection. Guides on how to access and use this functionality are available at https://www.aboutcookies.org.

The downside of using browser or device settings to withdraw your consent is that it will disable many of the cookies and similar technologies that are essential for our services to function—the impact of this is that some or all of the features and functionality we offer may stop working. Because of this, we recommend taking a more targeted approach to withdrawing your consent. For example, if you want to stop cookies and similar technologies being used to serve you interest-based ads, then instead of blocking all cookies, you could opt out of these via the Privacy Settings in Skyscanner mentioned above.

Many browsers and other third parties provide specialized ad-blocking software, “extensions,” or tools that let you block the use of all cookies for advertising purposes. If you access our services from an iOS or Android device, you can also control how your information is used for certain purposes, such as tracking and advertising, via your device settings.

You can also find helpful information about how to manage and limit your exposure to online interest-based advertising more generally across the web at http://optout.aboutads.info, http://optout.networkadvertising.org, and http://youronlinechoices.eu. You can use these services to opt out of most interest-based advertising used by us as well as other websites.