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?
I was thinking the same thing, considering that I have less money to pay to fly my price should be lower, no? But the article ends on this note:
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.
So basically the opposite of what it should be. I wouldnt mind individualized pricing if it meant Delta was robinhooding with their pricing model, but instead they are effectively using their pricing model to force out poorer consumers. Which makes sense from their perspective I suppose considering they can upsell more shit to people with more money.
As someone who lives in a top-wealth zipcode (as a working class person) I assume by next year this means I will no longer be able to afford to fly out of town…
Its starting to make sense why the GOP was working to ban regulation on AI use. This shit is blatantly unethical
There is no fucking way that that is sustained simply due to the fact that people would BURN THIS PLACE DOWN if companies start doing shit like that. No one has money as it is. I’m not convinced we’re not going to burn it down as it is.
These elites has truly lost the plot and are going so far down the comic book villain lane, they’re going to start dying like comic book villains. Dunked in acid, frozen solid, crushed by their exploding submarine, eaten by their own rabid experiments… Who knows, but I’m excited to find out.
People will not do anything. They might complain on Lemmy/Reddit/Facebook and then go watch another tiktok
Most people don’t even boycot companies for doing this shit.
Uber started this shit years ago. If you’re desperate, they screw you. You’re well off, they screw you. You’re in the middle of nowhere, they screw you. There’s a holiday/event, they screw you. You’re one of their drivers, they screw you daily.
I can’t recall if they ever got sued over it, but they’re still here.
people would BURN THIS PLACE DOWN if companies start doing shit like that.
Based on what? People will not do shit.
Based on them literally starving. This is a deranged idea that will infect every aspect of your life if you let it. And when it does, people will starve. There will be violence. That’s my point.
They may abuse us and torture us, but they are psychopathic about it that they are not leaving any bread of circuses. When those end, the top dies. That’s how society works throughout history.
Starving because Delta airlines did a thing? Not sure about that one.
Look around, dum dum. You see any shit burning to the ground? You think manipulating airline pricing is gonna do it?
This isn’t about fucking flight prices. This is a testing ground. You think it’s going to remain relegated to airlines? If this works out for delta, you’ll see this in grocery stores, in all entertainment, any subscriptions, every single transaction will be reduced to: what is the most you Are physically able to pay currently?
They’re already doing it for apartments and other rentals, and have been for years. Nobody did anything.
The wealthy have more time to shop around and more money to choose another option so companies think they need to provide extra incentives to get them which means better treatment and prices and etcetera.
The poor? Ehh gouge for all they are worth and hope they die so you don’t have to hear them complain.
Which is insane cause that means the poor are the profit margins allowing for the deals of the wealthy.The higher a percentage of your income is the price of something, the more reason there is to allocate time to find the best price - if something costs you an amount which you earn in 5 minutes, it’s not really worth it to spend time looking for the better price, if it costs an amount which you earn in 2 months, it’s definitelly worth to spend at least several hours looking around.
Granted, as you say, many don’t have the time to do this (though often the Maths for literally taking time of work to do it, do add up), and in my experience most people don’t really make the mental connection between an amount they’re considering spending and how long do they have to work to earn it hence don’t really look around enough when it’s financially logical to do it.
That said, for the reason I gave above, the rich don’t really care about things that “just” cost a couple thousand of dollars, which is why they casually just rent a private jet for a trip - there’s a whole industry for that - or even own one and employ a pilot for it fulltime.
Consumer protections when?
why should they? it’s basically just a worse version of scaling prices by income, something the government loves doing.
If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t be bad. Unfortunately the reason they want to use ai is because it will be more complicated than that. Think - you need to fly somewhere vs you are thinking of flying somewhere. Data brokers will provide the ai with information about your job, your (and your family’s) health, funerals, etc.
I don’t quite understand if your statement is for or against consumer protections because I can’t fathom being against consumer protections. Could you please clarify?
I read that as higher prices for poorer people and cheaper prices for the rich.
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…”
Would you rather be MegaHitler or give me this plane ticket for $3?
Well don’t do that, that’s how we get MegaHitler
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
As if I needed any more reasons to not buy HP products.
So its gonna run a soft credit check on you and then give you a price?
You don’t even need AI for that, and that’d be waaaaay cheaper to implement than AI.
…
A Delta spokesperson told Fortune the airline “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.”
This is horseshit.
In Economics, the entire concept of setting specific prices for specific market demographics is literally called ‘price discrimination.’
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price_discrimination.asp
Advance purchase and different seating classes literally are price discrimination, third degree.
Frequent flyer discounts would be second degree.
Overall adjusting seat costs per flight based on how full or empty that flight is, is first degree price discrimination.
…
This is like a company that sells chickens saying ‘we don’t sell chickens.’
This is just gobsmackingly false, so blatantly so that it is actually funny.
Airlines entire fucking business models are based on inventing new forms and strategies of price discrimination.
…
What this asshat is saying is only even interpretable as true if what he means is ‘we don’t directly factor sexuality, age, disability, ethnicity, legally protected classes into our pricing model.’
They of course do this indirectly by pulling a whole bunch of your meta data and then accurately inferring those things, and then discriminating against you based on that.
It is laughably easy to get around US discrimination laws in this way, megacorps have been regularly doing this for at least decade now, both when it comes to you as a consumer, and you as a potential employee or renter.
It’s only “funny” if they don’t get away with it.
Otherwise, it’s just more depressing shit to throw on the pile
I have an Econ degree so my sense of (extremely dark) humor at this point is basically:
‘billions must die, but actually’
Like I don’t know what to do at the cuts to SNAP, Medicare, and Section 8, the resumption of student loan payments, the tariffs and destruction of our farming and construction industries via ICE raids… other than just laugh.
We’re looking at Great Depression 2.0, a Holodomor-like, engineered-through-stupidity-and-malice famine.
I am at this point expecting millions, potentially tens of millions of Americans to die or be reduced to literal, actual debt slaves, or be incarcerated for crimes deriving from being forced into utter destitution… all that within this 4 year Trump term, unless there is an actual revolution.
Maybe if the Dems sweep the midterms (if Trump/the Reps even allow them to happen without massive ratfuckery) some of the bleeding can be stopped, but this situation is looking extremely fucking bad.
Oh god. I forgot about climate disasters.
Welp, alcoholism runs in my family, so, time to go look at cute puppies or something.
Luigi Mangione, white courtesy phone. Luigi Mangione, white courtesy phone please.
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
Sounds like a recipe for Unpredictable Rewards and messing with loyalty systems. Hook people on a loyalty program, slowly jack up the price, then throw in some real deals to keep them gambling for more. Don’t think an AI is necessary to do this, but corporate loves AI.
I have an idea for a business: a browser with vpn. the catch is that the vpn connects to the poorest areas of the country you live in, and the browser reports your machine as the most crappy thing that can browse the web - which should result in low, low prices everywhere!
the catch is that the vpn connects to the poorest areas of the country you live in
A common mistake.
You’re going to get a worse deal if the airline thinks you’re not going to be a repeat customer or part of a larger network of frequent fliers. The customers who get the best deals are the ones that airlines believe they will be able to collect money from routinely. If they have you pegged as someone who will only ever buy a ticket once or twice in their lives, they’re going to try and sell you the worst possible seat at the highest possible price.
What you can expect as a poor buyer is debt-financing, bait-and-switch, and the worst kind of economy service at the highest marginal price point. Budget airline travel is miserable and AI isn’t going to make the experience any better.
That’s a good argument, so probably the location should be in a pretty high COL suburb, maybe a gated community.
Well then fuck delta.
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.
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.
Like “I need to get home to see my dying child” and they think “oh yes, what a perfect opportunity to demonstrate our ability to extract as much money as possible”
Exactly. I used dying grannie as an example talking about it. Also, “You haven’t made a major purchase in 6 montths.”
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.
So soon even more AI will decide you have to pay more, and that extra money will be going to Israel, no doubt helping to fund their genocide
Guess people will be moving away from Delta then.
Didn’t Delta just settle a suit claiming they misused us gov taxpayer subsidies?
