The Civil Rights Act requires companies not to discriminate against legally protected classes. That includes both disparate treatment and disparate impact.
I can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics.
It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates.
But when an ML model is making inferences about a person's willingness to pay based on what data a company has collected about them, that really feels like it's moving into murky waters, even apart from the predatory element.
As someone who always checks both Uber and Lyft, and always keeps both apps open during the ride so the loser knows I went with the cheaper alternative[0], I'm guessing I won't be flying Delta anymore.
[0]no proof, but presumably one or both of their analytics teams have figured out this signal, given its prevalence in the population
Relax, the ticket isn’t $4,999 because you’re broke, it’s pre‑success tax on your inevitable successful exit. They do see your YCombinator IP after all. Or...open the site in Lynx on an old ThinkPad. The fare will drop by half.
the funny part about the backlash is that the travel budgets are likely somewhat pareto distributed and under the not-personalized pricing strategy it is the little guy who is probably overpaying for plane tickets, not the corporations and the wealthy individuals
Time to open source some adversarial AI! De-wealth your data footprint for better prices, leave digital traces that say “I’m dirt poor, but willing to buy if the price is right”.
I think the OSS community might be able to fight this fight.
Seems like there's a relatively simple solution for this: allow airline tickets to be resold.
Apart from the fact that this restriction massively benefits airlines, I've never understood why it's not allowed. No matter what, you still have to go through security and present your ID there, so the additional security benefit of knowing a traveler's identity at the time of purchase seems pretty marginal.
Don't we already have individual pricing on lots of things like used cars, contractors doing work on your house, car insurance, etc? Most people that work in sales have some ability to adjust pricing based on their personal judgement of the customer(mark). Do you think there's not discrimination by a contractor when they come into your house and size you up and what they think you are willing to pay or maybe they just don't like your race/religion/smell. I'm just a little confused when it's so outrageous if airlines or amazon gives different prices to different people when it happens every time there is actual one on one price negotiation.
The source for this "article" is a company trying to sell an air travel related service that would be out of business if airlines changes their pricing model. It's also clearly written with AI hence the bullet point recap at the end. So I would take it all with a huge grain of salt.
This is end-stage capitalism, where the corporations become cartels. They're no longer happy with making a profit based upon providing good competition based upon efficiency gains. They are looking for profit maximization at any cost.
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[ 5.8 ms ] story [ 40.7 ms ] threadI can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics.
It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates.
But when an ML model is making inferences about a person's willingness to pay based on what data a company has collected about them, that really feels like it's moving into murky waters, even apart from the predatory element.
[0]no proof, but presumably one or both of their analytics teams have figured out this signal, given its prevalence in the population
Delta moves to eliminate set prices, use AI to set your personal ticket price - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44596355 - July 2025 (91 comments)
What can possibly justify this being legal? It seems ripe for abuse.
If airlines are allowed to do this, I don't think there'll be a thing we can do, seeing as tickets are nominative.
I think the OSS community might be able to fight this fight.
What’s the big deal? We live in a society that’s been doing this for at least n-thousand years! :)
Apart from the fact that this restriction massively benefits airlines, I've never understood why it's not allowed. No matter what, you still have to go through security and present your ID there, so the additional security benefit of knowing a traveler's identity at the time of purchase seems pretty marginal.