Josh Hawley Questions Airline CEOs on Family Seating Fees and Dynamic Pricing

Family Seating Policies

• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Senator Hawley questioned airline CEOs regarding policies that charge families extra fees to sit with their young children, highlighting that DOT data shows some airlines, like Allegiant, have a "red X" indicating non-compliance with family seating provisions.
• ❌ Allegiant's representative acknowledged the "red X" but stated they accommodate families in practice and do not charge additional fees for ticketed children, attributing the "red X" to technology issues and promising to investigate.
• 💰 Hawley criticized charging families extra for children already ticketed as "predatory" and suggested Congress may need to mandate family seating without additional fees.

Dynamic Seat Pricing and Data Collection

• 📊 Hawley inquired about dynamic seat pricing, where prices for the same seat can vary between customers, and whether airlines like Frontier and Allegiant engage in this practice.
• 🚫 Representatives from Allegiant and American Airlines denied using personal information to set dynamic prices, stating their pricing is route-based or that they are eliminating upfront personal data collection for pricing.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Hawley expressed skepticism, pointing to the extensive personal information collected (zip code, browser cookies, search history, date of birth) and questioning the guarantee that this data is not used to set prices.
• 💻 Allegiant's representative stated they are in the process of eliminating the need to enter personal information to see a price, except for date of birth required for security reasons.

Use of AI in Pricing

• 🤖 The discussion shifted to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in setting prices, with Delta mentioned as using AI for customized pricing.
• ❓ Hawley questioned the purpose of AI in pricing, suggesting it's to extract maximum profit from individuals, and asked if airlines would support a ban on using AI for individualized seat prices.
• ⚠️ Representatives from Airlines for America (A4A) stated they could not commit to banning AI for pricing, as AI has many potential benefits, including efficiency, and they are committed to not using AI to exploit personal information.
• 📉 A4A representatives also highlighted that airlines have low profit margins, disputing the idea that they are highly profitable.

Overall Customer Experience

• 😠 Hawley concluded by stating that the flying experience for most Americans is terrible, citing issues like charging for children, extensive personal data collection, and the potential for AI to extract more money from customers.
• 🏛️ He suggested that based on the hearing, Congress has significant work to do to improve the airline industry's policies and customer experience.