Relax, the ticket isn’t $4,999 because you’re broke, it’s pre‑success tax on your inevitable successful exit. They do see your YCombinator IP after all. Or...open the site in Lynx on an old ThinkPad. The fare will drop by half.
Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
11–20 of 74 posts
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#12The Civil Rights Act requires companies not to discriminate against legally protected classes. That includes both disparate treatment and disparate impact. I can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics. It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates. Bu…
You’d have to demonstrate that the pricing consistently is high/low based on one of the protected classes to successfully challenge it.
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#13The Civil Rights Act requires companies not to discriminate against legally protected classes. That includes both disparate treatment and disparate impact. I can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics. It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates. Bu…
Maybe their excuse will be that it can't be proven whether or not the deep learning model is discriminating based on this or that, it's just taking in as much data as possible?
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#14The Civil Rights Act requires companies not to discriminate against legally protected classes. That includes both disparate treatment and disparate impact. I can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics. It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates. Bu…
As a student of political science, I agree with you. However, the current political administration and Supreme Court seem unlikely to be interested in protecting consumers in this way.
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#15Sounds like consumers need AI identities to help them get the best deals from this kind of thing.
That is why this is so diabolically effective. To book the ticket they need your real id, quickly correlated across the hundreds of brokers willing to sell your data. I bet they have a partnership with Visa and Amex.
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#16Recent & related:
Delta moves to eliminate set prices, use AI to set your personal ticket price - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44596355 - July 2025 (91 comments)
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#17Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#18The Civil Rights Act requires companies not to discriminate against legally protected classes. That includes both disparate treatment and disparate impact. I can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics. It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates. Bu…
There's complexity here that could sway a court. A few years ago, we engaged an AI company to identify potentially problematic hospitality customers. Those were required to check in in person at the front desk instead of the app. Sounds like it could fail those tests, but those tests are for humans and this is AI!
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#19Relax, the ticket isn’t $4,999 because you’re broke, it’s pre‑success tax on your inevitable successful exit. They do see your YCombinator IP after all. Or...open the site in Lynx on an old ThinkPad. The fare will drop by half.
I feel like Lynx on a ThinkPad would signal techie more than broke. How about Internet Explorer on Windows XP, maybe using the public library wifi?
Re: Delta’s new AI-powered pricing strategy
#20The Civil Rights Act requires companies not to discriminate against legally protected classes. That includes both disparate treatment and disparate impact. I can't see how "personalized pricing" would remain unchallenged, given those hurdles, if it truly means pricing fares based on individual characteristics. It's totally fine to have loyalty programs that reward people who fly Delta frequently with better rates. Bu…
You’d have to demonstrate that the pricing consistently is high/low based on one of the protected classes to successfully challenge it.
Assuming their model is accurate at predicting economic value and assuming that the wage gap between men and women still exists, wouldn't it be relatively straightforward to show men as a group are quoted higher prices?