Delta Air Lines is moving away from static prices towards individualized pricing decided by artificial intelligence, Fortune reports.
The airline company wants to do away with static pricing altogether and instead charge customers based on the particular flight they want to take at a particular time. By the end of the year, the company wants to have 20 percent of all ticket prices individually determined by AI, Delta President Glen Hauenstein said. The airline is currently pricing about 3 percent of tickets with AI.
Haustein said last year the company wants ticket costs to be informed by an AI “super analyst” that can work 24/7 to determine what an individual passenger should pay at any given time, Fortune reports. The program is expected to take years to fully implement.
Travel expert Gary Leff told Fortune this plan has been in the works for years: “Personalized pricing has been an airline goal for the past decade and a half.”
Not everyone is excited about the program. Some experts and lawmakers say this new program will be unfair to consumers and will raise ticket prices.
Matt Britton, author of Generation AI, told Fortune that AI is “fundamentally rewriting the rules of commerce and consumer experience.”
“For consumers, this means the era of ‘fair’ pricing is over,” he added. “The price you see is the price the algorithm thinks you’ll accept, not a universal rate.”
Senator Ruben Gallego, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, said he “won’t let [Delta] get away with this.”
“Delta’s CEO just got caught bragging about using AI to find your pain point — meaning they’ll squeeze you for every penny,” the Democrat wrote on X. “This isn’t fair pricing or competitive pricing. It’s predatory pricing.”
Justin Kloczko, an analyst with Consumer Watchdog, told Fortune that this means Delta wants to “see into people’s heads to see how much they’re willing to pay.”
“They are basically hacking our brains,” he said.
A Delta spokesperson told Fortune the company has “zero tolerance for discrimination.”
“Our fares are publicly filed and based solely on trip-related factors like advance purchase and cabin class, and we maintain strict safeguards to ensure compliance with federal law,” the spokesperson said.
Delta also announced the company is planning to reduce its main cabin capacity by about 1 percent to boost capacity for premium-level seats. The airline is also rolling out lie-flat “Delta One Suites,” enhanced domestic First Class seats and premium economy “Premium Select” on additional aircraft.
The Independent has contacted Delta for comment.
