Latest news with #airlinepricing
Al Jazeera
5 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
US lawmakers criticise possible AI use in personalised flight ticket prices
United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says there are concerns about the use of artificial intelligence to set personalised airline prices, echoing red flags brought up by three Democratic senators. Duffy on Tuesday promised to investigate any airline that uses the technology to set prices. 'To try to individualise pricing on seats based on how much you make or don't make or who you are, I can guarantee you that we will investigate if anyone does that,' Duffy said. 'We would engage very strongly if any company tries to use AI to individually price their seating.' Duffy noted Delta clarified that it would not use AI for pricing individual tickets, 'and I'll take them at face value.' Last week, Delta Air Lines told lawmakers it will not and has not used AI to set prices for individual consumers. Late last month, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would 'likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point''. Delta previously said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20 percent of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. Fetcherr on its website said its technology is 'trusted by the world's leading airlines' and lists Delta, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, Viva and Azul. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said last month that using AI to set ticket prices could hurt consumer trust. Democratic lawmakers Greg Casar and Rashida Tlaib have introduced legislation to bar companies from using AI to set prices or wages based on Americans' personal data and would specifically ban airlines from raising individual prices after seeing a search for a family obituary. Delta said airlines have used dynamic pricing for more than three decades, in which pricing fluctuates based on a variety of factors like overall customer demand, fuel prices and competition, but not a specific consumer's personal information.
Wall Street Journal
03-08-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Delta Gets Blowback for Using AI to Set Airfares
Delta Air Lines has boasted about its new 'super analyst' that could work around the clock, process massive amounts of data and help it maximize revenue. It is AI. For months, the Atlanta-based carrier has been working with Fetcherr, a startup that aims to transform airline pricing the way that algorithmic trading upended financial markets.
CBS News
30-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
American, Delta and United charging higher rates for solo flight tickets, writer finds
A Minneapolis-based aviation writer says he's uncovered an airline pricing strategy that makes tickets for solo travelers more expensive. Kyle Potter, executive editor at Thrifty Traveler, says he discovered the practice as he went to buy a ticket for a flight himself. "I saw a $206 one-way fare to Newark this summer," Potter said. "I bumped it up to two passengers, then all of a sudden, I'm looking at $156 for the same fare." Potter ran more tests and found that Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines all were doing the same thing. Solo tickets cost more than tickets bought in a group for the same flight. "You start doing some math, double checking, 'What's going on here? Did I enter the wrong airport code? Did I change the date on accident?' It became pretty clear, quickly, this was a penalty for booking just one ticket," he said. "This isn't an isolated incident. This is a trend. This is something that airlines are doing in order to squeeze more money out of people who are booking just one passenger." Potter posted his findings online in a post that's now been shared thousands of times and viewed by millions of online users. He suspects airlines of charging higher rates for solo travelers to increase costs for business fliers who would typically expense the price of the ticket. WCCO has reached out for comment to Delta, American and United, with Delta being the only airline to respond so far. In an email, a Delta spokesperson said the company is "limited in what it can say about pricing," though they said "this pricing structure is not new to Delta or the airline industry." Potter said after his interview with WCCO that an insider tipped him off that Delta's policy would be reversing course. Higher prices for solo tickets remain for the other two airlines. "It feels like a game of cat and mouse. Every time we find something out, weeks, months later, there's some new system, trick, to push you into a more expensive fare, or hide a cheaper fare from you," Potter said. "I think there just needs to be more accountability – and I don't know if that's something individual travelers can achieve."
