How AI Could Make Holiday Airfare Even Worse — And What Lawmakers Are Doing About It

For many families trying to get children to grandma’s for Christmas Eve, finding affordable airline tickets feels less like planning and more like rolling the dice. Airlines have long used dynamic pricing — adjusting fares constantly based on when you buy, what seat you select and when you travel — and a recent analysis from the travel site Upgraded Points found holiday flights cost about $100 more on average than a typical week.

In July, Delta CEO Ed Bastian disclosed that the carrier already uses artificial intelligence to inform pricing on roughly 3% of its flights and plans to expand that to about 20% by the end of the year. That announcement, and broader experimentation with AI-enhanced pricing by major carriers, has amplified concerns that an already opaque pricing system could become more aggressive and harder for consumers to understand.

Political and Regulatory Pushback

The response was swift. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) called the development “the worst thing I have heard from the already awful airline industry.” Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Mark Warner (Va.) pressed Delta for answers in a joint letter, and Sen. Gallego vowed not to let the airline "get away with" personalized AI pricing.

Delta responded in an Aug. 7 statement: "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." At a September Senate subcommittee hearing, Airlines for America (A4A) — the trade group representing major carriers — told lawmakers its members do not use "personal information to target a price toward a person." When asked whether A4A would support a ban on AI-driven individualized pricing, the industry declined, saying only that "AI can be used in many, many different ways." That refusal suggests airlines want to keep the option on the table.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian revealed during a quarterly earnings call in July that Delta was already using AI to help with pricing.(Ben King / MS NOW; Joan Valls / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

How Personalized Pricing Could Work

Experts warn that if carriers gather extensive customer data and draw inferences about individuals, they could present unique fares tailored to each traveler — extracting more revenue from those who have fewer alternatives. Consider a concrete example: you live in New York and must fly to Phoenix next week for a beloved great-aunt’s funeral. If an airline or a data partner can infer your urgent need — perhaps from an online flower order or other signals — an algorithm might raise the fare. Similarly, device data (like a new high-end phone) or searches from an affluent neighborhood could be used to infer a customer's willingness to pay, while searches tied to religious holidays could invite different pricing.

Airlines’ privacy disclosures already show the breadth of data collected: mouse movements, referring websites, device signals and other behavioral indicators. Carriers and their partners build profiles that may include household income ranges, employment and education history, social media information and, in some disclosures, biometric or genetic data. As data brokers increasingly buy and sell consumer information, those datasets can be matched and repurposed — making it technically feasible to tailor offers or even set individualized prices.

Why AI-Enhanced Dynamic Pricing Is Concerning Even Without Personalization

Even if carriers stop short of explicit one-to-one personalized fares, AI could enable far more frequent and aggressive dynamic pricing. Bloomberg reported that Fetcherr, a company used by Delta, outlined ways AI could help airlines deploy more dynamic — and typically higher — fares that change more often. Many travelers already resent day-to-day price swings; with AI, those swings could become larger and occur more rapidly, driven by algorithms that synthesize richer data sources.

Critics argue this combination of data collection and algorithmic pricing would likely lead to higher costs for consumers and greater profits for carriers — an outcome that feels particularly sensitive after the airline industry accepted a roughly $54 billion government bailout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What Advocates Want

The proposed remedy from consumer advocates and some lawmakers is clear: prohibit personalized and AI-driven dynamic pricing for airlines. The argument is straightforward — carriers should not be allowed to charge different customers different amounts for the same seat based on inferred personal characteristics or data signals. While airlines insist they do not currently use individualized pricing, their refusal to back a preventative ban has prompted calls to act now, before the technology becomes entrenched.

Bottom line: AI can make airline pricing smarter — and potentially more lucrative for carriers — but without guardrails it could also make travel more expensive and less fair for consumers. Policymakers face a choice: allow experimentation to continue unchecked or set limits to protect travelers.