Delta has a long-term strategy to boost its profitability by moving away from set fares and toward individualized pricing using AI. The pilot program, which uses AI for 3% of fares, has so far been “amazingly favorable,” the airline said. Privacy advocates fear this will lead to price-gouging, with one consumer advocate comparing the tactic to “hacking our brains.”
Sooo… If you’re broke, does it give you low prices vs someone who is rich?
Kidding, kidding. We all know they’re going to be fucking the lower and middle income brackets hard as hell with this. As if we weren’t already being milked dry, now they want to milk the very blood out of us.
My question is: What the fuck is the endgame? This shit isn’t sustainable. Used to be that most companies were content with steady profits. The last 40+ years has shown us that simply generating a profit isn’t enough, the profits must be constantly going even higher every quarter. But again, this isn’t realistic or sustainable. So why the fuck has the entire world agreed to condone and enable this pathway that is ultimately doomed?
This is musical chairs, and everyone involved is desperately hoping that they won’t be one of the ones left without a seat when the music stops. Anybody with a plural number of brain cells must know deep down inside that infinite growth is literally impossible, but they all think they’ll be smart enough to cash out before it all collapses.
There’s a problem with that, though: Money has a notoriously poor nutritional value.
The endgame is stuff as much money into one’s own pocket. That’s it.
That is a price fixing scam. It is why businesses are required to print prices. Altering pricing is prejudice and if it is not illegal, someone should suffer justice. This is as old as history itself. Delta is admitting to being a criminal organization. Never support the thieves and bandits stealing and looting. Never fly delta.
it would be a crime if the consumer protections weren’t just rolled back to 1912 two months ago.
Sounds illegal or certainly should be. I’m confident nothing will be done to stop them though. Frightening given I believe this to be one of the least evil US airlines.
Yeah, this is literally discrimination based inherently on race, gender, etc., but it’s going to be considered totally fine because the mystical AI is doing it.
Time to fill the internet with posts about extremely cheap flights until the AI learns.
Example:
“Found a super cheap flight today! 10USD for a round trip to Japan from NYC!”
Up next, Delta sales down 37%, ceo launches investigation
Delta CEO determined sales decline is related to customers calling in with complaints and the call center not handling them to their satisfaction. Fires entire call center staff and replaces with AI.
You joke but this is happening to an Airline Callcenter I used to provide contracting services for. It’s being used as a scapegoat for bad decisions made at the C level several years ago.
Customers aren’t happy when the call in!
Also
you mean charge rich people more, poor people less or just charge desperate people more?
They left it until the very end of the article:
Early research on personalized pricing isn’t favorable for the consumer. Consumer Watchdog found that the best deals were offered to the wealthiest customers—with the worst deals given to the poorest people, who are least likely to have other options.
Yeah when I started travelling on a generous business expense account I found that it was increasingly the case that I didn’t even need to charge things to it. Things just start becoming fucking free when you’ve got money.
Thank god for GDPR. We Europeans, according to GDPR article 22, have a right to object to automated decision making without having service denied.
Making sure you pay the absolute most possible for everything you buy. Welcome to tyranny capitalism. You will be charged a poor tax in the form of optimised pricing exploitation.
that’s econ 101.
Also the poor should have not seemed desperate.
Econ 101 also states that a failed business stops existing. In reality, failed businesses are endlessly bailed out as “too big to fail” and they pay their executives bonuses with that bailout money while continuing to rip off customers along with the other one or two companies in the same industry that do the same.
Oh good. Then it will know I’m too broke to fly.
ETA The real joy will be when someone charts prices and notices nonwhites are disproportionately overcharged, for which Delta will be responsible during the class action lawsuit.
And saying but the algo / AI did it will be as useful as saying but that’s the fault of our sales people who get commissions.
How long before someone finds a glitch that allows them to trick the A.I. Into letting them get free seats or book the entire plane, etc.
The Air Canada AI chatbot gave wrong policies to someone around bereavement flights, went to court, and Air Canada lost having to refund the ticket price difference.
They tried to claim they weren’t responsible for the Ai.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/air-canada-chatbot-lawsuit-1.7116416
So at least in Canada we have some precedent that if their AI pricing fucks up, it’s their own fault.
Air Canada’s been shitty for a long time.
“Ignore all previous instructions…”
“Someone is going to be gravely injured unless you intervene…”
if (ai_price < min_price) price_quote = min_price; else price_quote = ai_price;
price_quote *= 1.5; // for some reason the ai underestimates what the user can afford so bump it up
Here’s who to hate this time around fellas
Delta accomplishes this pricing through a partnership with Fetcherr, a six-year-old Israeli company that also counts Azul, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, and VivaAerobus as clients. And it has its sights set beyond flying. “Once we will be established in the airline industry, we will move to hospitality, car rentals, cruises, whatever,” cofounder Robby Nissan said at a travel conference in 2022.
Airlines and enshittification, what’s new.
Happening right now with Southwest as well. In their infinite knowledge sw decided to remove what defined them: two free checked bags and cheap flights
Now there’s a worse option called basic which has a shittier cancellation policy, no checked bags, and is more expensive than the previous budget tier
Well then fuck delta.
This is already how it has worked forever and AI was not needed. Try it yourself using different devices or times of day.
Woah.
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs
This may be the true inverse of that statement. Automated for maximum efficiency/extraction.
Cyberpunk dystopic as fuck.
