How to Beat Delta’s AI Pricing

Delta Airlines recently announced they are using Artificial Intelligence to set prices on their airline tickets. There is much discussion already on what this will do to ticket costs.

What we know for sure is that Delta is doing this for their own benefit. That could mean selling tickets at higher prices but it could also mean selling more tickets. But what we almost certainly know is this will benefit Delta at the expense of the consumer.

My Test Purchase on Delta Airlines

A few days ago I decided to test pricing on Delta by looking at one specific flight round trip from New York to Denver. Here is what I found:

• On Delta.com when using my standard browser, which I often use to purchase Delta flights, they showed me a low fare of $526.97 in the Main class of service.
• On Orbitz I was able to purchase that exact same flight for $436.97 in the Main Basic service
• I then went to Delta.com using a different browser set to privacy mode and with all cookies deleted. I was shown that same $436.97

Your Relationship With Delta Airlines

So what I clearly found is that when Delta Airlines knew it was me searching for a fare, they opted not to show me their cheapest class of service. Why? Well, I fly Delta a lot and I sometimes purchase a Main fare while at other times a Main Basic fare. Delta knows this and wants me to buy the more expensive fares. Which means they are not even showing me the cheaper fares!

I fly Delta a lot. I am a Platinum Sky Miles member. I spend a lot of money on the airline. But now, the way I see it, I am essentially at war with Delta’s AI engine when I wish to purchase a ticket on the airline. Honestly, I find it offensive that a business I frequent so much is now purposefully hiding information from me to get me to pay them more money for a service I don’t want.

This is just one test case. If you don’t fly Delta a lot, perhaps they will offer you less expensive fares. But I wouldn’t count on it.

How to Beat Delta’s AI Pricing

So how can you beat Delta’s new AI pricing engine? I have a few suggestions:

• Always check prices on Delta flights via a third-party booking engine such as Orbitz or Expedia. I do this anyway because I like to look at options on other airlines.
• Check prices on Delta.com on your normal browser to see how the prices compare. If they are the same as on the external engine, you are probably safe purchasing that fare.
• If you see something different on Delta.com on your regular browser, check out the website on a separate browser with cookies disabled.

Those are the basics. There might be other ideas you could try, such as purposefully going on to the Delta site to look at a fare and then purchasing it elsewhere; looking at the Delta site first and then booking on a different airline, or even abandoning a ticket in the checkout process of Delta to see what happens to the price a couple weeks later.

Good luck.