It Appears That the Airlines Are Quoting Wildly-Differing Airfares to You Depending on Their Assessment of Your Personality

You're about to read one of the most startling, but probably accurate, new discoveries about airline shenanigans in recent travel history.  A book by USA Today reporter William J. McGee, called Attention All Passengers:  The Airlines' Dangerous Descent, is claiming that numerous airlines have begun collecting data on their passengers and would-be passengers--their previous purchases, the extent of their cost-conscious attitudes, their race, income and gender, whether they make impulse purchases or else "shop around"--and then tailoring the prices offered to them according to those personal characteristics.  Two passengers requesting the same flight at the same time are quoted different prices on the airlines' websites!

In other words, according to McGee, you are being watched.  Tracking what you have earlier purchased, and your pattern of purchasing, the airlines "tailor" their airfares to your personality.  An outright invasion of your privacy is occurring.  And this accounts for why other people accessing the airlines' websites at the same time as you, are being quoted differing fares.

It's an amazing indictment--but it seems to be supported by the anecdotal evidence that all of us have chanced upon.  I've been surprised, for example, to find differing ads appearing on my laptop in a particular website, at the same time as someone using a different laptop is seeing other ads.  I've encountered this too many times to doubt that ads are being chosen according to my own past history of accessing them and clicking on certain ads.

Though many airlines are already engaging in these maneuvers, according to McGee, the International Air Transport Association is, remarkably, petitioning the Department of Transportation for the right to quote different airfares to different classes of people.  In other words, they want to do legally what other airlines are already doing without regard to legality.

To repeat:  they want to quote one set of prices to people whose history is that of making quick, impulse purchases, and another set to people who shop around.  They want to engage in "dynamic pricing."  They want to deal in "customized fares."  They want to quote one level of prices to low income people and another to higher earning people.  If all this seems out of a science fiction novel, it isn't; the department of Transportation has actually announced it is accepting comments from the public by May 7, responding to IATA's petition.

Have any of our readers had experience with the airlines' "dynamic pricing"?  Have they noticed such customized pricing in their use of computers to buy other products?  Have they actually noticed that the advertisements appearing on their computer are different from those of friends using another computer?  I'd be fascinated to hear of your experiences, and will be voicing in a later blog my own reactions to this (disturbing) development.