How to beat AI-driven custom pricing
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | When it comes to travel and especially booking airfare, there are new concerns around how artificial intelligence might be used to set prices. |
| 0:08.4 | The worry comes after Delta Airlines announced it was using AI to help adjust prices on some of its flights. |
| 0:15.4 | In this report that first ran on our digital platforms, producer Tim McPhillips takes a look at how travelers should approach |
| 0:22.1 | buying plane tickets and how all consumers can help guard themselves against AI-driven custom pricing. |
| 0:29.1 | You may have heard that Delta is using artificial intelligence to help set some airfare prices. |
| 0:34.6 | That sparked fears that the airline could create a custom price for you, |
| 0:38.3 | using your data to find how much you'd be willing to pay for a ticket. But while Delta says |
| 0:43.3 | they aren't doing that, they are using AI to help them adjust prices in response to market forces |
| 0:49.3 | faster than humans can. Here are three things to know if you're booking airfare now and whether |
| 0:53.3 | custom pricing could impact you in the future. One know if you're booking airfare now and whether custom pricing could |
| 0:55.0 | impact you in the future. |
| 0:56.8 | 1. If you're booking airfare now, the same old adages apply to find the best fare. |
| 1:02.1 | Delta is testing AI to help set prices on limited flights, about 3% of fares for now, moving |
| 1:08.1 | to 20% by the end of the year. |
| 1:10.0 | But while AI might help prices move |
| 1:11.6 | up and down faster, we currently all still see the same price. So for a better deal, |
| 1:17.1 | it's still a good idea to be flexible, which may mean flying on lower demand days like Tuesday, |
| 1:22.6 | Wednesday, or Saturday. Consider alternate airports in the areas you are traveling to and from. Use flight comparison |
| 1:29.1 | tools like Google flights to easily compare cities, dates, and airlines. If you're flying roundtrip |
| 1:34.9 | checks to see if two one-way tickets are cheaper than a round-trip booking. And consider budget |
| 1:40.1 | airlines or basic economy tickets on mainline carriers. But if you do so, just be sure to pack light to avoid extra fees. |
| 1:47.6 | Too, much of the fear sparked by Delta's announcement comes from what Delta or any other airline |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PBS NewsHour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PBS NewsHour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.