“Travel advice: Are Airlines quoting different prices to different people?”

By: Priscilla - April 23rd 2013

Columnist Arthur Frommer cites disturging reports that airlines collect data on passengers’ habits and adjust prices accordingly.

GETTY IMAGES Are airlines quoting different prices to different passengers, depending on their habits? Columnist Arthur Frommer says that seems to be the case. And he’s not happy about it.

By: Arthur Frommer Special to the Star, Published on Tue Apr 23 2013

EXPLORE THIS STORY

You’re about to read one of the most startling, but probably accurate, new discoveries about airline shenanigans in recent travel history. A book by USA Today reporter William J. McGee, titled “Attention All Passengers: The Airlines’ Dangerous Descent,” is claiming that numerous airlines have begun collecting data on their passengers and would-be passengers – their previous purchases, the extent of their cost-conscious attitudes, their race, income and gender, whether they make impulse purchases or else “shop around” – and then tailoring the prices offered to them according to those personal characteristics. Two passengers requesting the same flight at the same time are quoted different prices on the airlines’ websites!