Airlines Moving Forward With Dynamic Pricing

Jul 05, 2018 Avatar  TravelStore

First there were the charges for checking in luggage. Then came the added cost for reserving specific seats on an aircraft. Now it’s Dynamic Pricing, the latest strategy airlines will be deploying as a means to increase profitability, and it’s raising eyebrows.A recent survey indicates most consumers are not even aware airlines are moving in this direction.

Of course, we need to have a healthy and profitable airline industry, and we don’t begrudge the airlines for looking at ways to stay profitable, especially as fuel costs begin rising again.
However, the questions of privacy and rate parity come into play with Dynamic Pricing. The basic concept is to serve up customized pricing for a flight based on an individual traveler’s profile.

Two travelers looking to book the same roundtrip flights on the same day may pay completely different prices based on their IP address or browser history. The strategy is to determine which traveler might be willing to pay more for a flight than another traveler might, and how much more.

Dynamic Pricing will make it even more difficult to get unbiased price comparisons, making our role as travel planners all the more relevant and valuable for corporate clients. Dynamic Pricing isn't here yet, however, but stay tuned.

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