One viral JetBlue blunder has customers convinced it uses surveillance pricing to upcharge on flights

JetBlue replies to customers on social media every day, from assuaging their customer service woes to thanking them for choosing their flights. But one seemingly innocuous JetBlue response may have set a class action lawsuit in motion, after customers became convinced that the airline implicated itself in using surveillance pricing.

A social media frenzy

JetBlue first drew suspicions of surveillance pricing with an April 18 reply on X to a user complaining about the airline’s prices. “A $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy,” they wrote. “I’m just trying to make it to a funeral.”

JetBlue replied, recommending that the user “try clearing your cache and cookies or booking with an incognito window. We’re sorry for your loss.”

The implications of JetBlue’s advice immediately raised eyebrows. If the fare a customer sees can be affected by clearing their cookies or going incognito, live pricing must be impacted by the amount of times they’ve visited the website, and not all customers are seeing the same rates.

JetBlue deleted its reply, but not before it was screenshotted and recirculated. One viral X post of the interaction has since amassed more than 6.2 million views on the platform. “Did JetBlue just admit to surveillance pricing?” the post asked.

Amid hordes of everyday users, some sitting politicians also chimed in on the discourse. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote, “Is Jet Blue openly admitting to raising someone’s price hundreds of dollars because they know they have to go to a funeral? Grief shouldn’t come with surge pricing.”

“We need to pass my bill to make surveillance pricing illegal,” Gallego added, referencing the One Fair Price Act, which he introduced in December. The bill would bar companies from using customers’ personal data to set individualized prices.

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), who’s currently running for Senate, also voiced support for Gallego’s bill. “Yeah so this shouldn’t be allowed,” he wrote. “We’ve got a bill in the House to ban companies from using AI to jack up prices based on your data. Let’s get it passed.”

Taking things to court

JetBlue’s PR crisis escalated with a proposed class action lawsuit, filed late Wednesday, April 23, ​in Brooklyn federal court.

Following the logic laid out in JetBlue’s viral response, the complaint alleges that JetBlue is hiding its use of “trackers” to set prices dynamically, including sharing customer data with third parties whose programs help it decide when to raise fares.

“Consumers should not have to have their privacy rights violated to participate in [JetBlue’s] digital rat race ‌for airline tickets which should ⁠cost the same for each similarly seated passenger,” the plaintiff, Andrew Phillips, said in the complaint.

JetBlue responds

In a statement to Fast Company, JetBlue denied using surveillance pricing on customers and explained its deleted response.

“JetBlue does not use personal information or web browsing history to set individual pricing,” the airline said. “Fares are determined by demand and seat availability, and all customers have access to the same fares on jetblue.com and our mobile app.”

It also said the viral reply was “simply a mistake from an individual customer service crewmember,” and that “the steps the crewmember suggested would not have changed the airfares available for purchase.”

JetBlue did not address the lawsuit in its response.

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