If you're checking out flights on a high-end Mac, in San Francisco, the dynamic pricing might assume you have higher income and show you higher prices. They also know that parents will look to find the best deals months in advance and as such, prices around those periods remain high, despite the number of available seats and current demand.Ī switch to dynamic profiling is unlikely to change this scenario. Airlines know that demand during school holiday periods will dramatically increase. For instance, a flight from London to Lanzarote is primarily marked for leisure. The report led to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling the situation 'a sad state of affairs that might just violate consumer protections.' Flight Route Profilingįlight route profiling has existed for a long time. The reality is that the backend of such a system will never see the light of day, lest it exposes shady and discriminatory practices.Ĭonsumer Reports, formerly the Consumers Union, states in a report from 2018 that 'Despite the notion that algorithms are neutral and objective arbiters, algorithms can exacerbate bias or have unexpected discriminatory effects.'Įarlier, in October 2016, a Consumer Reports study across nine of the top travel search sites cited '42 pairs of different prices on separate browsers for the same sites retrieved simultaneously.' One of the biggest issues dynamic pricing presents is the tracking and grading of individual customers, which will undoubtedly lead to flight fare discrimination toward any number of potential customers.Īny system that gauges a customer's suitability for a specific price should remain open for analysis. There are more than a few people voicing concerns regarding dynamic fare pricing. Dynamic Flight Pricing Leads to Price Discrimination However, airlines are finding it difficult actually to shift from that system-but that time is now.

The current flight pricing structure was put into place in 1978, after The Airline Deregulation Act.

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