But will just adding AI alone be enough? I propose we also add "blockchain", "the cloud" and "e-commerce" to ticket pricing in order to truly synergize profit dynamics.
this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
99 points (99.0% liked)
Technology
87390 readers
5443 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Understood.
Never fly Delta.
Heads up, there's a VERY UNETHICAL service out there that works around some of the VERY GOOD AND BENEFICIAL things the airlines do. You should avoid going to it because it ROBS these poor struggling airlines of VALIDLY EARNED profits.
Including a link so everyone can add it to their blocked sites lists. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU GO TO THIS MONEY SAVING SITE AND PARTICIPATE IN THEIR ANTI-CORPORATIST SCHEMES.
https://skiplagged.com/
I thought I read years ago that airlines responded to Skiplagged by penalizing people who didn't complete every leg of the trip they booked. I'm not sure why they would care.
Rumor has it this is the case, but I haven't found any tangible "I used this service and was punished for it" stories.
....uh, WHICH IS TERRIBLE, BIG AIRLINES' RIGHTS ARE BEING INFRINGED. THIS IS A MATTER OF FREEDOM TO AVOID THIS SERVICE.
What they do is cancel your entire trip. So if you don't have flights with the same airline on the way back....eh
Thanks for the tip. We'll see if it bares out.
Do get the sense that these third-party sites are going to become an increased necessity, as data-scrappers and trackers try to peg the price of a flight to the credit card limit of the buyer.
But... idk, I'm not seeing anything on this site that I can't find by directly querying individual airlines. (Like so many other budget airline calculators) there's no inclusion of Southwest on the list. And if the odd deal is inevitably just going to be through JetBlue anyway? Why not shop direct?
I think Southwest is moving to a hub and spoke model, but historically they haven't used it. Skip lagging seems to mostly rely on a "I want to travel to the hub, so buy a cheaper ticket to a different spoke and jump off at hub" methodology.
Which is to say, Southwest may just not be "vulnerable" to this atm.
I grew up in the 1970s air travel wasn't cheap but it was accessible. You were treated well. I (6 at the time) got to go to the cabin and stood right there between pilot and co pilot ... Captain gave me a metal chrome pair of wings (pin with logo and I think a plane) .... I was flabbergasted... Walked guided by the stewardess silently to my seat. There was courtesy and the mindset during those years and up to maybe late 80s was "the customer is our greatest asset". Now profit is the greatest asset and the customer is in the way. No wonder we all go around pissed off. Bags were FREE UNTIL 9/11 and they said we will only charge temporarily until the crisis is over. Asshats and liars.
If you're a kid, you can still do those things, if you ask nicely (and the crew are able to accommodate you).
If you're not a kid, ask a Delta crewmember about the trading cards.
They also work with ICE, increase you didn't hate them enough
Who doesn't work with ICE, at this point?
I mean, if you aren’t actively fighting them, you’re supporting them.
You don't have laws against selling the same product at different prices in the US? 😕😔
Given the US, I'd bet 20 states say that it's illegal (but can't seem to enforce that unless one of them is New York or California), 20 states say that it's specifically legal (including Texas and Florida), and the remainder either haven't made up their minds yet or no one cares what they think because they don't have the population or economic clout to make anyone listen.
It would not surprise me if we didn't, but even if we did it doesn't matter anymore. Rules are for the proles, not the parasite class.
The US is pro making things as hospitable for corporations as possible, while making them as inhospitable for citizens as they will tolerate. And it turns out, Americans can tolerate a LOT.
hey other human, how did you pay? oh shit... I. being fucked
hi I'd like to csncel my ticket because you're a corrupt peice of shit.
At least in the US, you have a very narrow window to cancel and then you're stuck with it, unless you pay a huge premium for a refundable ticket. But I agree, practically-speaking, the only solution in a late-stage capitalist marketplace is to create some crowdsourced pricing information to identify pricing outliers. Which, truly, isn't a good solution.
If we had a functional government, this would be regulated/prohibited on an emergency basis, since in theory government is supposed to represent people and not corporations. Unfortunately, in 2026, we're livestock to herd and fleece.
Well whatever you do dont go to https://skiplagged.com/. They help people with the unethical practice of skip lagging (buying a ticket with a layover and never jumping on connection), which robs these struggling airlines of honestly earned profits.
I’m still waiting on $500 in refunds from when THE AIRLINES THEMSELVES canceled my fucking flights in early 2020. I didn’t reschedule with them — they couldn’t get me where I needed to be in time. Apparently they were allowed to cancel my flight and demand I reschedule everyone’s itinerary for whatever they’re able to support, holding my money hostage.
Why haven't you filed a complaint with the FAA or FTC or whoever yet? Or a chargeback with your bank?
Because I waited too long. My wife was really stressed, didn’t want to fight them on it. I was really stressed, knowing we needed to get out of the state before Covid got worse. I didn’t have a reliable job anymore. There was a lot going on. By the time I felt squared away, my wife would criticize my intent to get the money back. “It’s too late now.” I figured she’s probably right from a chargeback perspective, but wasn’t sure about other routes… regardless, the lack of support dissuaded me from trying too hard. I would pay attention to the class action lawsuits, though. I even tried to join one of them, but the firm told me I was too late to join. Go figure. Capitalism won.
Ah, but didn't you hear? Corporations are people, and since they're the biggest and loudest (money is speech after all) people, they get all the attention.
It's astonishing how much damage those two decisions have caused.
There are two acceptable ways to leverage technology (including AI) to increase profits: one is to maintain/decrease operational costs while maintaining service (this means enhancing existing delivery, not replacing humans with AI), and the other is improving service without increasing costs.
Everyone who goes for options 3 and 4 (replacing employees with automation and automating fleecing your customers) is after quarterly earnings at the expense of long term company profitability. This is essentially the VC vampire model, and companies rarely survive it for more than a decade.
Delta has the worst customer service, at least in the Tampa airport. They were directly responsible for me missing an international flight and couldn't care less, even talked about me with other staff right in front of me. It was beyond offensive and I think they enjoyed it. I will never fly Delta ever again.
Add this to the list of reasons why I drive instead of fly.
Always the benefit of the c suite / board, never the customer. screw humanity of course
Do they think if it's an AI raising prices, and not them - that it will make a difference?
Hunting for whales that won't put up a fight on this, and catering to them specifically going further.
If I recall correctly something stupid high like 80% of their revenue from flights is from frequent travelers. These travelers are generally loyal to an airline because of the benefits from sticking with a network. I spent a year buying regular coach tickets and being upgraded to 1st class on all but 2 flights out of around 150 when I was traveling (I hit the top tier on the frequent traveler program)
The thing that this dumbass CEO is missing, is that these flyers are still on a budget and there is still some competition. The whales will swim away if you attempt to screw them over. This is why airlines have status matching programs for frequent travelers.