Normal view

Received yesterday — 2 August 2025

Delta denies using AI to come up with inflated, personalized prices

1 August 2025 at 19:07

Delta spent July dealing with backlash over what the airline company claims is widespread public confusion over its AI pricing system.

Now, Delta has finally come forward to break down precisely how the AI pricing works to dispute what it claims are "incorrect" characterizations by consumer watchdogs, lawmakers, and media outlets.

In a letter to lawmakers who accused Delta of using AI to spy on customers' personal data in order to "jack up" prices, Delta insisted that "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."

Read full article

Comments

© Sundry Photography | iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus

Received before yesterday

Delta’s AI spying to “jack up” prices must be banned, lawmakers say

25 July 2025 at 18:13

One week after Delta announced it is expanding a test using artificial intelligence to charge different prices based on customers' personal data—which critics fear could end cheap flights forever—Democratic lawmakers have moved to ban what they consider predatory surveillance pricing.

In a press release, Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) announced the Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act. The law directly bans companies from using "surveillance-based" price or wage setting to increase their profit margins.

If passed, the law would allow anyone to sue companies found unfairly using AI, lawmakers explained in what's called a "one-sheet." That could mean charging customers higher prices—based on "how desperate a customer is for a product and the maximum amount a customer is willing to pay"—or paying employees lower wages—based on "their financial status, personal associations, and demographics."

Read full article

Comments

© Hongwei Jiang | iStock / Getty Images Plus

Will AI end cheap flights? Critics attack Delta’s “predatory” AI pricing.

17 July 2025 at 16:01

Delta has become the first airline to announce that it is using AI to boost profits by personalizing pricing through a pilot program that for months has caused customers to pay different prices for the same flights based on their data profile.

Critics have warned that this use of AI goes beyond airline practices that charge people who book flights ahead less than people who book flights at the last minute—and could ultimately mean the end of cheap flights across the board if other airlines follow.

On an earnings call last week, Delta Air Lines President Glen William Hauenstein confirmed that seats on about 3 percent of domestic flights were sold using the AI pricing system over the past six months. By the end of the year, Delta's goal is to boost that to 20 percent of tickets.

Read full article

Comments

© baona | iStock / Getty Images Plus

Delta CEO says one of its most popular routes was faster in the 1950s than today — and antiquated air traffic control is to blame

15 May 2025 at 19:05
Ed Bastian
Delta CEO Ed Bastian says outdated air traffic control equipment is to blame.

Steve Marcus/Reuters

  • Most commercial flights today are faster than they were decades ago, but not always.
  • Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said flying from Atlanta to New York actually takes longer today than in the 1950s.
  • He said old air traffic control systems are to blame, amid chaos at Newark that's caused mass delays and cancellations.

You wouldn't expect your commercial flight today to take longer than it would've decades ago, but Delta's CEO said that's the case lately for at least one major flight route.

A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta, where the carrier is headquartered, to LaGuardia airport in New York City takes longer today than it did when the airline began offering the route in the 1950s, Ed Bastian said Thursday on "The Today Show."

Delta typically offers at least a dozen flights daily that originate in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and arrive in LaGuardia. The shortest of these typically takes around 2 hours and 13 minutes.

"What happens is in order to keep it safe everything gets slowed down at the sign of any kind of risk," he said.

Asked why the flight takes longer today, Bastian responded, "That's the air traffic control system. It's very slow, it's congested but it's not congested; there's plenty of space if you modernize the skies and you can kind of bring greater efficiency."

Key to modernizing the skies would be using satellite technologies and GPS, he said, in addition to updating the radar and radio systems from the 1960s that air traffic controllers are still using.

Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Duffy said in Sunday's interview that he is "concerned about the whole airspace" in the United States because the equipment used by most airports is now outdated.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently spoke about the issue on "Meet the Press," saying he was "concerned about the whole airspace" in the country because of the antiquated equipment.

"The equipment that we use, much of it we can't buy parts for new," Duffy said. "We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down. You're dealing with really old equipment. We're dealing with copper wires, not fiber, not high-speed fiber, and so this is concerning."

Bastian called on additional investment from Congress to fund the modernization.

Another major airport in the New York metropolitan area, Newark Liberty International Airport in neighboring New Jersey, has recently been experiencing mass delays and cancellations affecting thousands of travelers.

"It's slowing everything down, taking stress out of the system," Bastian said of Newark. "Now that's not good in the long run, it's not good for consumers, it's not good for the airport itself but it's the only thing that we have in the meantime."

The airport has seen massive disruptions since late April, caused by a shortage of air traffic control staff, some equipment outages, the closure of the main runway for construction, and rainy weather.

Read the original article on Business Insider

❌