How Airlines Will Use AI To Charge You More — and 8 Ways To Outsmart Them
Written by
Seychelle Thomas
Edited by
Rebekah Evans
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You’ve been using AI for your shopping list, vacation itinerary or to create cartoon versions of yourself. Major airlines, however, are using AI to rake in more profits. Airlines like Delta are beginning to use generative AI to analyze your search habits and set a price based on what it thinks you’ll be willing to pay.
Even though AI could make your next trip more expensive, there are still a few ways to outsmart the system and get a fairer price.
Delta Leads the AI Charge
During the Q&A portion of an earnings call, Delta Airlines president Glen William Hauenstein, shared that Delta is continuing to experiment and roll out dynamic AI pricing for flights using an AI startup, Fetcherr. Currently, 3% of domestic Delta flights have their prices set using generative AI. By the end of 2025, Delta plans to increase that to 20% of all domestic flights. “We’re in a heavy testing phase. We like what we see. We like it a lot and we’re continuing to roll it out,” Hauenstein said.
Will AI Make Traveling More Expensive?
For consumers, that means airlines like Delta and potentially others are using your personal data to determine how much you’ll pay for your next flight. That could include your login status, social media activity, previous booking history, search frequency, financial status and IP location, according to the FTC. It also means that you could see drastically different prices based on each individual’s online habits.
In response to news of Delta’s AI individualized pricing, three senators released a public letter voicing their criticism and concerns regarding this practice. Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal penned a letter to the CEO of Delta Air Lines in July, chastising the use of surveillance-based pricing models and demanding answers on how the AI system is being trained and what personal data is being used.
“Prices could be dictated not by supply and demand, but by individual need,” the senators wrote in the letter. So if you needed a flight to see a sick family member and the airline’s AI was fed that information, you may see higher prices when searching for tickets. Or if the AI is fed your income data and knows you make above a certain amount, you could regularly be charged more than others are paying.
“While Delta has stated that the airline will ‘maintain strict safeguards to ensure compliance with federal law,’ your company has not shared what those safeguards are or how you plan to protect American families against pricing discrimination in the evolving AI landscape,” the senators wrote.
How To Outsmart AI Pricing
Escaping surveillance pricing requires you to take some extra steps before booking your next flight. You can still find neutral prices without having your personal data used against you by taking these precautions:
- Use a VPN to help hide your identity
- Search for flights in incognito mode
- Use a different device to compare prices
- Use a privacy web browser like DuckDuckGo
- Book directly with the airline. Third-party sites may collect more data.
- Clear your browser’s cookies
- Refresh your session between searches.
- Support legislation that prevents surveillance pricing.
Airlines have a vested interest in raising their profits and with AI fueling the pricing models, it could take more money out of your pocket the next time you search for tickets. Level the playing field by protecting your personal data.
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