00:00I would caution anyone to assume that this is actually what's happening specifically with
00:05airlines. But I can't talk about airfare, and I will say that for as frustrating as airfare is,
00:11for as certain as everybody out there, is that every time that they've ever looked at a flight,
00:16gone back an hour later and seen that fares are up $50, and they're certain that that means that
00:22airlines are tracking their searches and adjusting prices accordingly. That is just not how airfare
00:27works. That doesn't mean that there's not going to be interesting things for the FTC to find and
00:33highlight in getting this information from Delta United and JetBlue, but I don't think it's going
00:38to be quite so cut and dry as what everybody assumes. Let's be clear, for as much as I want
00:43to caution people to not jump to conclusions or believe that the assumptions that they have about
00:49airfare is how this world actually works, there is no reason to trust airlines. Airlines do plenty
00:55of things that are questionable at best that may still not be true surveillance, personalized
01:01pricing, whether it's charging solo and business travelers more, and, you know, even the highway
01:08robbery prices that travelers here in Minneapolis see right now. But a lot of that is just dictated by
01:14the good or not so good old-fashioned way of setting fares, which is really just about supply and
01:20demand, competition, or here in Minneapolis, lack thereof, and, of course, the cost. And I see all
01:28of those things leading to the pretty disgusting prices that a lot of travelers are seeing right now
01:33and not this idea that airlines are tracking our searches. Because the reality is, is that, again,
01:38for as frustrating as this system can be, for as much of a black box as it is to try
01:43to understand,
01:44the way that airlines set airfare, the technological systems that they have are so out of date,
01:52shockingly out of date, like from the 1990s, they don't have a mechanism today to actually
01:59personalize pricing in the way that the FTC is suggesting.
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