Lawmaker Stands Up to Delta

Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein announced that the company planned to expand its use of AI in setting its prices, sparking widespread criticism. Now, one lawmaker is pushing back against the airline.

During an earnings call last week, Hauenstein told reporters that about 3 percent of the airline's domestic ticket prices are already set using AI, and the company hopes to expand that to 20 percent by the end of 2025. 

Hauenstein also boasted about Delta's partnership with Fetcherr, a tech company that claims to be able to "set the perfect price every time" using AI. He went as far as to compare the AI analysis to a "super analyst" that does not have the same limitations that a human analyst does.

“We’ve started this and I’d say what we have today with AI is we have a super analyst,” Hauenstein said, according to Airline Geeks. “We have an analyst that’s working 24/7, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And trying to simulate, given the same inputs that an analyst sees today, real-time, what should the price points be. And that output is different than what we have in the market. And so we’re letting the machine tell us, actually, go ahead and price in a very controlled environment.”

As Delta moves forward with this plan, though, there has been plenty of pushback with several Senators demanding answers, a former FTC chair issuing a warning about the ramifications of the change, and even a competing CEO condemning the move.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - APRIL 09: Delta Air Lines planes park at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on April 09, 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Delta Air Lines pulled back its full-year financial guidance and warned that “growth has largely stalled” given the uncertainty over how developments on global trade will affect the economy. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Now, one lawmaker is looking to stand against the change with actual legislation.

This week, Utah state Rep. Tyler Clancy announced that he is running a bill to prevent companies from setting prices for individuals based on their personal data.

"It's also a huge invasion of your privacy," Clancy, a Republican from Provo, told KSL.com. "I think that what my legislation is going to need to do is recognize this as not a recognized or acceptable business practice unless there's an explicit opt-in provision. It shouldn't be something that you opt out of."

Clancy provided an example that illustrates just why this type of personalized pricing is such a problem.

"Cinemark or AMC Theatres can recognize, 'Hey, Friday night, this is our peak pricing' ... so they're being transparent about why you're being charged more," he said, adding that it would be different if a theater charged a weekly moviegoer less than it charged someone who was going to see the same showing with a friend visiting from out of town. "It's the same night, it's the same movie, but one person's being charged more than the other."

"Consumer protection, I think, is largely viewed as more of a progressive issue, but consumer privacy, or privacy in general, is seen as more of a conservative issue," he said. "I do think there's a large overlap in setting some commonsense guardrails around this kind of really unique and invasive pricing that hopefully we can find some momentum here."

We'll have to see how this proposed legislation progresses.