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So, did the entire world misunderstand when Delta Air Lines said they’d use AI to help set airfares?
Or is this a case of “CYA” — “Covering Your Airline”?
As View from the Wing’s Gary Leff wrote last fall, Delta COO Glen Hauenstein — you know, Mr. Ham Sandwich — told the airline’s investors:
Over time we think that is going to get melded together and it’s really just offer management. We will have a price available on that airplane at that time that’s available to you the individual…what we have today with AI is a super analyst, an analyst working 24/7 a day, trying to simulate..real-time what should the price points be? … We’re letting the machine go ahead and price in a very controlled environment. It’s going to be a multi-year, multi-step process.
But that was only going to be tested across 1% of its airfares.
During the Q2 earnings call a few weeks ago, Mr. Hauenstein said the grand AI experiment would affect 20% of Delta’s airfares before the end of 2025.
That made news. And not in a positive light.
What many people — myself included — figured was that Delta’s AI would figure out how much you’d be willing to pay for one of their flights. Like, you might see a price of $500 for a trip and I’d get $300. (This is just a theoretical example.) Like, how in the world is that fair?
And then there’s this fear, which I’ve seen across a few social media posts:
Turns out that at least some members of Congress wanted clarification about what Delta is up to.
According to Reuters, a trio of Democrat U.S. Senators — Richard Blumenthal, Ruben Gallego, and Mark Warner — thought, Delta would use AI for individual pricing, which would “likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer’s personal ‘pain point.’”
Did you just hear a loud screeching sound? Sounds like it could’ve been some heavy brake-slamming-on coming from somewhere near Delta’s Atlanta headquarters.
Reuters writes, “Delta said it will not use AI to set personalized prices.”
“There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data,” Delta told the senators in a letter on Friday, seen by Reuters. “Our ticket pricing never takes into account personal data.”
I’ve never claimed to be the smartest person in a room — even when I’m alone. But didn’t Delta at least give a strong impression that they were using people’s personal data to set ticket prices? Or were they?
Delta is usually very good about legalese. (Try digging through their terms and conditions when you try to find some mundane detail about the SkyMiles program.)
Lawyers in the group: is “personal data” a potentially vague legal term that just means information like name, address, phone number, email address, and whether your like an aisle or a window? But excludes, say, “buying trends and history for people with the last names similar to ‘Doe’ who live at (Jane Doe’s real address)”?
Is “plans to use” different from “will use?”
Is Delta backtracking? Are they being coy with legalese? Did most of the world just misunderstand what the airline twice said?
What do you think?
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Personal data in Delta speak is almost certainly just your name, etc. though I’m also that certain California and other jurisdictions that Delta does business in have a broader definition of personal data that may encompass more than identifying information or basic airline seating preferences.
Just because someone has no plans to do something doesn’t mean they won’t do it.
Moreover, Delta would surely argue that it didn’t do it. Rather, a contractor did it.
Bastain is a tool and all the Delta fanboys lap up his drivel
“Ham Sammie” Hauenstein also praised Delta’s partnership with Fetcherr, an Israel-based tech company that employs AI to process “millions of data points instantly,” according to its website. But hey, Delta’s pretty good at the walk-back from the overzealous move and slow creep-up.
For AI to work, it must benefit society, not just some deceitful clowns. Continue to call BS on this crap.