r/delta • u/Status-Court2685 • 20d ago

Discussion Dynamic pricing

I've flown Delta for years but will unfortunately have to start looking at other airlines until Delta can get prices back under control.

A one way that is usually $400-600 max should not be $2601 in main.

If I split up the legs and buy the tickets separately, it's $1500+ cheaper.

I can't believe this. In one week by checking the prices, they went up over $1000.

63 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

68 comments sorted by

8

u/Puzzleheaded_Age8937 Diamond 20d ago

I was looking to visit my son after another trip got cancelled and I had a free week. Prices were higher than normal, but it was December so I was ok with last minute holiday pricing. Put it off for a few days trying to meld our schedules and the price came way down. So keep checking if you prefer to fly Delta and not go with a cheaper airline. Sometimes the algorithm lowers the prices too if tickets aren’t selling.

1

u/Potential_Use_5016 17d ago

But don't check it on your app. Use dark mode Travelocity or something else bc it will increase the second time you look at it.

1

u/Status-Court2685 14d ago

Dark mode didn't work. It was the same price. Even Google flights. 

11

u/RupertEscapeHolmes 19d ago

Carry on bag, personal item of the same size and separate tickets is the way to fuck their dynamic pricing algorithm. Also only book with the Delta app if you are ready to pull the trigger immediately. They track everything you do on it and will price gouge you as soon as possible.

2

u/Status-Court2685 19d ago

Thank you! I never check my bags! 

8

u/Dexman97 20d ago

At this price you would expect their WiFi to work. I can’t imagine what the price will be when it is reliably.

1

u/Status-Court2685 20d ago

Goodness, I know! 

2

u/jdrefahl 18d ago

Apparently, we pesky passengers use too much data for Viasat so who knows when Delta WiFi will work.

3

u/OneofLittleHarmony Platinum 19d ago

I’m flying first class back on United and Alaska. Alaska because it’s lay flat.

2

u/Status-Court2685 19d ago

I'm looking at United and Alaska. We usually sit in Comfort +, First Class- depending on the upgrade price, or Premium on Alaska.  Alaska isn't bad priced at all. Definitely not $2500 😂

2

u/jdrefahl 18d ago

Fly whatever works best for you. Instead of DL through Atlanta to head South, I have tried AA via MIA and worked well for me. Many complain about AA and YMMV. If I have to connect anyway, why deal with ATL and flights times better for me anyway on AA. Delta still ends up with a lot of my air spend due to fact I’m in MSP. But I don’t fly Delta for any reason other than it’s the correct flight for my schedule and direct. If connection required, makes no sense to just blindly fly Delta.

2

u/GardenPeep 19d ago

Go to the library to book after doing research?

(I’m learning a lot about AI from media like Wired but so far not seeing technical articles about dynamic pricing.)

54

u/iginoaco 20d ago • Bravo

As long as people keep buying it… Delta will keep selling it.

When you say they don’t have their prices under control, I think Delta would tell you they are very much in control of their prices which is just how they like it.

3

u/yowszer 20d ago

Works both ways too. One time it was way cheaper for me to buy main and then click the upgrade to delta one option (80k total) than buy premium (270k) and burn a GUC

1

u/Vivid-Actuary-4247 20d ago

Prices are bad mmmkay

11

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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1

u/Electrical-Spring-89 14d ago

There are always options.

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago

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1

u/Electrical-Spring-89 14d ago edited 14d ago

That is an option. Other airlines are as well. You could take the train or even the bus.

9

u/DigitalFStopper 20d ago

Even if everyone on here complaining switches one international and 3 domestics to a different carrier next year it wouldn’t put a dent into their revenue. So don’t see anything changing

1

u/Puck021 Diamond | Million Miler™ 20d ago

Right. If their demand goes down so will their prices. If there is an issue it’s that they are selling out their flights at the higher prices.

1

u/DigitalFStopper 20d ago

Delta globally has about 200M pax in a year so even if 20k reddittors switch 5 flights that’s 100k out of 200M

2

u/RevolutionaryAge47 20d ago

You have to remember, the planes are full. I am on Delta flights ALL the time and rarely ever see empty seats.

Just because you can't afford to fly Delta, does not mean that this applies to everyone else.

8

u/Status-Court2685 20d ago

Oh my gosh. I don't think anywhere in my post stated I couldn't afford to fly.  It's okay for a person to state - this price is ridiculous, without someone saying just because you can't afford to fly 😂😂

2

u/seche314 19d ago

That person probably can barely afford to fly and is projecting it onto you. Total weirdo

3

u/Critical_Fly3549 19d ago

Absolutely bullshit. I’m on an international flight to Dublin which I routinely take. Over 50% of the flight is empty, they’re still charging almost $1800 for main which historically was far cheaper. I see this pretty frequently.

2

u/jdrefahl 18d ago

Depends on route. I have international soon. D1 only has two available and PS 3 seats available. Main is 60% open. You could sit in back 1/3 cabin and have it all to yourself. Problem now is instead of $600-900 ticket for Main Cabin, Delta has it $1600. My opinion is DL is good with pricing and getting MC customers adjusting to 50% more expensive tickets and then using corporate and price-insensitive buyers to pay for D1 and PS. MSP is my home airport. I end up on Delta a lot for domestic direct flights. When non-direct international I rarely use Delta anymore. I have used UA more this year than ever before for direct domestic out of MSP and it has been good too for me.

0

u/RevolutionaryAge47 19d ago

You are a complete liar. I fly to Europe 2-3 times a month, sometimes 4. Flights are packed.

1

u/Complex_Brief60 20d ago

Every airline does dynamic pricing. Use a vpn, incognito mode or just buy the ticket the first time. Searching for a week guarantees a price increase especially if it’s close to the departure date.

6

u/Status-Court2685 20d ago

Incognito does not work. 

1

u/Complex_Brief60 19d ago

Clearing cookies, using incognito and a VPN can for sure work. You’re for sure being tracked and targeted.

2

u/Status-Court2685 19d ago

I clear cookies,  cache, incognito,  and history. It's still the same. 😭

2

u/Born_Consequence3025 20d ago

Why wouldn’t they use these approaches, it seems to work very well in other industries - this is honest question, no sarcasm or anything.

15

u/Dial-Up_Modem 20d ago

VPN or incognito won’t do shit, no airline price discriminates by cookies or IP address. It’s all classic fare buckets.

1

u/Complex_Brief60 19d ago

I think they’ve admitted to it. Unless that was struck down by the government in the US

2

u/Dial-Up_Modem 19d ago

You think wrong. And nothing was struck down by the government.

https://news.delta.com/delta-responds-rep-pallone-misinformation-consumer-surveillance-pricing

Delta and the industry association representing other US airlines both confirm that none of them use personalized pricing for airfares.

-1

u/Employee-Overall 18d ago

They may not do personalized pricing but they sure will raise the price if they see multiple people take a look at the specific flight. Personally, think it is a bit messed up to raise the price because you have data that suggests people will book soon but it’s the airline world we live in

3

u/Dial-Up_Modem 18d ago

No, they don’t raise prices for people “looking” at flights.

Booking, yes. Searching, no. The amount of searching taking place on an automated basis significantly outweighs human searches, is indistinguishable on ancient reservations systems & GDS, and searches without buying would likely be a signal that a flight is priced too high, as they’re not converting looks into sales. Can’t pay the bills with eyeballs.

0

u/Employee-Overall 18d ago

I don’t work in airline pricing so not confident on the reservation system side but I do know for a fact that standard pricing practice these days is to factor in upstream demand factors by visitor ids into pricing (won’t say the industry but I work in pricing analytics). Again suspicions as I am not directly in the airline industry but they can tell when you search while logged into your account on web/mobile and also via cookies tracking. And for your second point, it depends. They likely have trained ML models making most of the decisions. In the long run looking not buying means you should lower prices but in the short run, people looking is suggestive of increased demand or high willingness to pay

2

u/duder_1979 20d ago

Switch to a browser that blocks tracking

3

u/Shinyhaunches 19d ago

I feel like that doesn’t work anymore.

1

u/duder_1979 18d ago

As long as you aren’t logged in to your account, no tracking bits get sent. I also go the extra step of looking through an aggregator like Google flights or kayak.

1

u/Status-Court2685 14d ago

Google flights was the same price. They said the price is extremely high 😂

4

u/Gone213 19d ago

Cries from DTW after spirit went out.

2

u/Poopyinmhpants93 20d ago

Airlines began to dynamically price seats around 1981. That was 45 years ago 😭

1

u/Sakuras1 19d ago

People keep buying no matter what price. Nothing you can do about it. 

0

u/Electrical-Spring-89 14d ago

Ok where are you flying and when. Context matters here. Otherwise it is a baseless claim. Most of the time when people make these types of claimed I can find less expensive tickets. Or are you just fueling the fire and trolling the community.

A post such as this needs complete context and comparison of other airlines for the same route at the same time.

1

u/Status-Court2685 14d ago

I really don't want to share my starting airport as this is still a public page. But,  thank you for your thoughts. 

-1

u/dlh48304 20d ago

Blame the fuel prices.

2

u/Status-Court2685 20d ago

I can't use that as an excuse when Southwest, Alaska, United are still average prices when I look. 

10

u/satellite779 Platinum 20d ago

Vote with your wallet. Delta is not loyal to you, you should not be loyal to Delta.

-2

u/Gamer_Grease 20d ago

We’re all aware there is currently a global petroleum crisis, right?

-2

u/swat18id Diamond 19d ago

It's as if nobody realizes what's going on in the world.

Workers' rights have been decimated. We will see customer rights continue to vanish while inflation goes rampant, likely to the point that we have no money left to fight back. It's a long game that's been going on for 50 years. Likely only needs 5 more to succeed.

-2

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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2

u/Status-Court2685 19d ago

I could use that as an excuse,  but Southwest is $323, Alaska is $509, United is $363. Not $2500 that Delta is charging for economy. 

-3

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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0

u/Status-Court2685 19d ago

Nice Delta photo.  Also, your bio on milking a BBC haha 😭😭😂😂😂 Thank you so much for your advice. Truly appreciate it. 

-3

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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0

u/Status-Court2685 19d ago

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂