After Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, and Richard Blumenthal expressed concern that Delta Air Lines would use AI to set individual prices, the airline responded in a letter on Thursday.
“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,” the company said. “Furthermore, we have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable laws in privacy, pricing and advertising. Our Al-powered pricing functionality is designed to enhance our existing fare pricing processes using aggregated data. This technology is a decision-support tool that simply provides informed insights for our analysts, who oversee and fine-tune the recommendations to ensure they are consistent with our business strategy.”
Delta said that it is “deeply committed” to enhancing its customer experience and its ticket prices are dictated by “market dynamics and vigorous competition.”
Reuters noted that Gallego said, “Delta is telling their investors one thing, and then turning around and telling the public another. If Delta is in fact using aggregated instead of individualized data, that is welcome news.”
Late last year, Delta’s President Glen Hauenstein said that the airline’s AI technology can predict “the amount people are willing to pay for the premium products related to the base fares.” And the airline has said it is evaluating software from AI-pricing company Fetcherr.
Still, Delta insisted in the letter that, “the Al pricing functionality recommends pricing adjustments in both directions to enhance market competitiveness and drive sales, benefiting both our customers and our business. Fares are publicly filed through ATPCO multiple times daily and contain objective, publicly available fare rules that ensure all customers have access to the same fares and offers based on objective criteria provided by the customer such as origin and destination, advance purchase, length of stay, refundability, and travel experience selected.”
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