I love this! As it will motivate people to be as independent as possible to knock down their price
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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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.
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The endgame is that nobody has money and companies go bankrupt. The end.
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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.
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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.
This is so mind bogglingly insidious to actually roll out because Delta is a regional hub monopoly and major common carrier nationwide, they very well could be the market setters for this kind of AI-price scalping. Like, we’re just going to throw out the concept of serving ‘a market segment’ and trying to land on a certain price:offering ratio to capture market share via demand curve plotting, inherently leaving space both at the fringes and center for competition.
Now there is no competition. How does American or United price compare on routes or seat category, when there is no public price, but a personalized formula to maximize value extraction from each person? It’d be like trying to price compare at a close-envelope auction - you can’t.
There already is a lot of opacity in the buying process like phased seat releases creating artificial scarcity, but this is next level. I can absolutely see Delta holding back seats instead of selling them to ‘low value’ individuals who have very elastic demand, and releasing seats early/only for those who’ll pay the fees. Want peace of mind knowing you locked in your flight 6-9mo ahead? Pay up 🔫
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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.
Problem is that once Delta gets away with it, they'll all start doing it.
it would be a crime if the consumer protections weren't just rolled back to 1912 two months ago.
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Sounds illegal or certainly should be. I'm confident nothing will be done to stop them though. Frightening given I believe this to be one of the least evil US airlines.
Yeah, this is literally discrimination based inherently on race, gender, etc., but it's going to be considered totally fine because the mystical AI is doing it.
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.
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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.
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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!
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Please tell me that this is a secret plot by Amtrak officials to increase their ridership and bring high-speed rail across the US? Because if it is, I'll 100% support it!
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
Here's who to hate this time around fellas
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.
I wonder about these fuckers, like what is wrong with them. I totally understand theorising about this crap, it wouldn't be the first time I'd been down a line of thought purely thinking about "how could I maximise this" or "how could I solve this problem" but at some point I take a step back and "wait no, this is a horrendous idea" occurs to me. And then there's this twat who thinks "oh yeah, we should extract as much money from paying customers as possible and then we'll do it in other industries" and says it like they think everyone is going to think it's a good idea.
THIS is why privacy matters. Big tech collects and sells all your data so they can use it against you. My model says your Mom is dying and you need to get there quick; oh man, you are gonna pay.
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On the one hand we seem to currently have some of the cheapest air tickets the world has ever seen. If you're willing to travel like cattle.
On the other hand it feels like air travel is now like getting on the city bus and there's some guy vomiting in front of you and a screaming kid pissing on the seat behind you, all the while you're getting herded around like a cow, your stuff is at high risk of getting stolen with no recourse, and the airline is playing mind games about the best time to buy a ticket after sneaking in a bunch of clauses designed to get you to pay more later.
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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.
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Guess people will be moving away from Delta then.
If this proves to be profitable, you know that the other airlines will do it.
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Of course it's an Israeli firm that is enabling this greedy behavior. They already price gouge as it is. Can't we go back to the formula of "our cost + our profit margin adjusted for market". This bleeding the customer dry bullshit should stick in bullshit avoidable video game micro transactions.
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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
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Airlines are the biggest scammers. We need a real government that sets price & service caps.
They have been losing money on tickets for a while now
And making it up on credit card fees
Didn't Delta just settle a suit claiming they misused us gov taxpayer subsidies?