Delta moves toward eliminating set prices in favor of AI that determines how much you personally wil

[mountaineer]

Delta moves toward eliminating set prices in favor of AI that determines how much you personally will pay for a ticket
Irina Ivanova Deputy US News Editor
July 16, 2025 at 6:48 AM EDT
Updated July 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM EDT
FORTUNE

*  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.” 

Fresh off a victory lap after a better-than-expected earnings report, Delta Air Lines is leaning into AI as a way to boost its profit margins further by maximizing what individual passengers pay for fares.

By the end of the year, Delta plans for 20% of its ticket prices to be individually determined using AI, president Glen Hauenstein told investors last week. Currently, about 3% of the airline’s flight prices are AI-determined, triple the portion from nine months ago.

Over time, the goal is to do away with static pricing altogether, Hauenstein explained during the company’s Investor Day in November.   ...

“Personalized pricing has been an airline goal for the past decade and a half,” Gary Leff, a travel industry authority who first noted Delta’s AI strategy, told Fortune. “Delta is the first major airline to speak so publicly about its use of AI pricing, to tout it for its potential upside at its investor day in the fall and to offer concrete metrics around its use in its recent earnings call.”   ...

[The_Reader_David]

This should be banned.  Proper regulation of the economy involves defending the market against its subversion by large incumbents.  Allowing companies to do this makes effective competition impossible.  The only acceptable way of having anything other than set prices so that buyers can compare is to allow buyers to haggle.  Of course, since many airline routes are monopolies, with only one carrier flying them, for which there is no effective competition, there is even an argument for regulating prices in the public interest.

[DB]

So, what's the difference of going to the grocery store and the price for eggs are different for different customers???

All based on behind the curtain "AI" criteria.

Not okay. At all.

[mountaineer]

I'm a technology dummy, but isn't AI like anything else computer-related: garbage in, garbage out?

[DB]

I'm a technology dummy, but isn't AI like anything else computer-related: garbage in, garbage out?

Absolutely.

[Sighlass]

About the only thing I can say in AI defense is if it is allowed to say if you weigh 339 lbs, you should pay for two seats (and it is allowed to deduct your weight is a factor in jet fuel costs).

I don't like the idea of having a online profile is any scenario.

[catfish1957]

I expect in my lifetime that AI will be such an intrusion into our daily lives, that it will be unbearable.  Everything we deal with will have to fit and be adjusted to the algorythmic AI parameters.  Be it pricing, healthcare, financial, etc.

[Fishrrman]

Delta president predicts:
"By the end of the year, Delta plans for 20% of its ticket prices to be individually determined using AI, president Glen Hauenstein told investors last week."

Fishrrman predicts (without AI):
By the end of the year, Delta may lose about 20% of its current business...

[Smokin Joe]

Is there a surcharge/discount for complexion?

Can AI be 'racist'?

[berdie]

Not a good business practice imho.

[Smokin Joe]

Not a good business practice imho.

I already don't shop Albertson's because the price scheme doesn't make any sense to me. If you have the ap and know the double secret handshake and code word for the day, it's one thing, if not, it's another.

Phooey.

Put a price on it and I'll buy it or not (or just not shop there).

[DB]

I expect in my lifetime that AI will be such an intrusion into our daily lives, that it will be unbearable.  Everything we deal with will have to fit and be adjusted to the algorythmic AI parameters.  Be it pricing, healthcare, financial, etc.

I think AI is the biggest threat to general practice doctors. Here's the symptoms, here's the tests that need to be done, here's the fine tuning of the tests based on the previous tests and here's the action needed. Rinse and repeat. It is all the most likely fit based on the known parameters which the computer can do better than a human. Anyone outside the norm will have issues because the most likely fit isn't your cause...

[DefiantMassRINO]

Every request to book an airline ticket becomes an eBay auction, or an exercise in purchasing tickets from a scalper.

Also, makes it more difficult to compare airfares across different airlines and travel sites.

Travel sites will need to develop AI alogrithms to maximize value (lowest price) for travelers to counter airline AI algorithms.

Makes an already miserable experience even more miserable.

My wife was desperate for a cruise vacation.  I told her I didn't want to fly becuase that ruins the any attempt to have a relaxing vacation.  She vacations to see and do stuff.  I vacation to do nothing.  If it's not nothing, that's stlll work to me.  So, we booked a cruise out of Boston to Maine and the Canadian Maritimes and back.

Because we are not flying, we avoid the necessity to do the following:

- book a hotel room for the day before departure
- book a flight for the day before departure
- arrange transporation from the airport to the hotel
- arrange for dinner and breakfast
- arrange transportation from the hotel to the cruise ship

My wife is going nuts because this cruise out of our hometown seems way to easy compared to crusing out of Florida.  She's realizing how much of the work she used to do for our cruise vacations was dealing with the airlines.  The only reason we booked a hotel room for the day before departure was as a contingency for airline SNAFU.

If there airlines keep up the crappy customer experience, people may prefer to ride the rails in empty boxcars instead of flying.

[Smokin Joe]

I think AI is the biggest threat to general practice doctors. Here's the symptoms, here's the tests that need to be done, here's the fine tuning of the tests based on the previous tests and here's the action needed. Rinse and repeat. It is all the most likely fit based on the known parameters which the computer can do better than a human. Anyone outside the norm will have issues because the most likely fit isn't your cause...

Just don't go in with "flu like symptoms"....

[Polly Ticks]

Sounds like the natural next step from the way it works when you're trying to book a hotel room.  If you look at it once, you'll see a certain price. If you close out or refresh your browser, the price increases by about $20 or so. It is very frustrating if you're just looking around to see if a certain trip fits into your budget before you pull the trigger on it. Feels rather like a bait-and-switch scheme that should be illegal.

We did discover during our recent road trip that this problem disappears if you wait until you're a bit further down the road to look again and/or book the room. Different cell tower, different IP address. That was nice.