July 31, 2025 • 36 mins
Delta recently announced that by the end of the year, your ticket price may be decided by AI. Critics say using artificial intelligence here puts the current airline's dynamic pricing model on steroids. Delta has expressed that a variety of market forces have driven the dynamic pricing model for decades and this new tech will simply streamline the process. Do you feel AI will deliver fair pricing?
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS Costin's Radio.
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Speaker 3 (03:03):
Okay. Now I want to go to.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
A subject that I learned about today. Actually, my producer
Karen Bussemi have brought it to my attention. I would
say that most of us who have traveled by airplane,
whether you're a new traveler by airplane, but more importantly,
if you traveled by airplane, you know, back if you
(03:27):
were lucky enough to travel in the sixties or seventies
or eighties, air travel was a little different then. It
was less crowded, the seats provided more room. Generally on
a flight of any duration, the airline gave you a meal.
I can remember flying from Boston to Washington, or even
(03:50):
Boston to New York and you get a very nice
hot breakfast which would have some, you know, some of
egg and maybe bacon, maybe sausage or something. And they
would always be in English muffin and orange juice and coffee.
How they did it, I don't know, but they did.
And of course, now if you're on a cross country trip,
(04:12):
you're lucky to get a bag of peanuts.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And maybe if you want a beer.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You have to pay ten dollars for it, and by
the way, you're not you can't pay cash.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It's got to be done on a credit card. All
of that.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So there's a lot to complain about when we talk
about airlines. I don't think the airlines are focusing as
much on safety as they should. I've been watching the
National Transportation Safety Board hearings down in Washington this week
about the crash that took the lives of sixty seven
(04:42):
people between the plane coming in a Reagan airport, a
Reagan in National Airport and the Army black Hawk helicopter
which collided in mid air. I think there were sixty
four people on the plane, including the crew, the passengers
and crew, and there were three people on the Army
black Hawk helicopter. How that could have happened literally within
(05:03):
sight of the control tower is inexplicable. And just watching
some of the reports from Channel five tonight, it appeared
as if there were more questions raised than answered. So
against that backdrop of again, airline travel, which used to
be special. Now if you've only traveled on planes for
(05:27):
the last ten years, it hasn't been special for about
twenty years.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's not special anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
You get to the airport, you got to get your
ticket at a kiosk, You got to.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Go through a lot of aggravation.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They charge you for luggage. They don't charge you for luggage.
People of drag luggage on the overhat. The overhead bins
are packed in full. If you get an opening and
you put your piece of luggage up there, who knows
what happens to it?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And others slam a jam in the air luggage.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Up And against that as a backdrop, now Delta Airlines
has decided that.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I guess they have what's.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Called dynamic pricing, okay, And the Delta Airlines has decided
that they are going to move away from a set
price for a ticket.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Again, in the old days, you would call your travel
agent and you would say, can you book me tomorrow afternoon?
To Washington and your travel agent would find you the
best price to you based upon the parameters that you
travel agent's very difficult, if ever, now to find. Okay,
(06:49):
So now what do you do. You go on the
computer and you book the ticket yourself, and you see
what the price is, and there it is. I mean,
they used to be a strategy. Some of you will
remember that you wouldn't buy your airline ticket six months
in advance because they would put out the high priced tickets.
(07:09):
The same ticket would go down as if the plane
didn't fill up. Now, the risk you took was if
the plane filled up and the seats were gone, well
you blew it.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But if you waited and.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
You hit it right, you could get a six hundred
dollars seat maybe a couple of weeks before the plane
was full for two hundred.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Now, what they're going to do is they're going to
incorporate AI powered dynamic pricing because through you know AI,
which none of us truly understand this, okay, but it's
(07:50):
artificial intelligence. As I joke, I'm waiting for some real intelligence.
They are going to be able to figure out what
you will pay for your airline ticket. So when you
go on your computer at some point in the future
for Delta and you say I want.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
To fly to California. They'll say, okay, when do you
want to go?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Okay, I want to go on August twentieth. What time
of day do you want to go? I prefer morning?
And you fill in mourning and they'll give you a
couple of choices. One flight leaves at six thirty two early,
but one flight flight leaves at ten thirty Okay, So
now you will put all the information in and they
(08:33):
will have information on you. So you will be dealing
through a commuter through a computer I should say better
with a computer.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Computer.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You'll be dealing through the computer, and you will be
dealing with a robotic AI powered pricing mechanism. It is
the only way I can describe it. And they will
know if you're someone who is a profligate spender or
someone who watches your pennies. How will they know that, Well,
(09:05):
they'll have information from you when you have bought through
Amazon et cetera. Are you somebody who buys everything that
you see or are you someone who watches very carefully?
So they will have all of that information on you.
As I understand it, and some of you are going
to understand this better than me, and they will say, okay,
we can put you on that flight cross country. Let's
(09:27):
say that the average price on that flight one way is.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Six hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Let's just say it's six hundred dollars to get from
Boston to Los Angeles to Boston and San Francisco. But
if they think that you will pay more, you won't
see a price. They won't say, Okay, you can be
on this plane for five hundred dollars. No, they will say,
if you're willing to take and buy this ticket, now,
(09:56):
you can have this ticket for nine and fifty.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They believe.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They believe that that is going to increase their bottom
line because they think that they will be able to
figure out how much you you, you personally will pay
for that ticket, not how much the ticket is really worth,
but how much you.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Will pay for the ticket. Now. If that's not scary,
I don't know what is.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Because for them to figure that out. So, if let's
say we're on two separate computers and you're you're a
free spender, I'm a little bit more cautious conservative. We're
looking at the.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Same flight we're sitting next to each other.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
On different separate computers, and they will say to you,
your price is nine hundred and fifty dollars hypothetically, and
they will say to me, your price is for ninety
nine same flight, same plane, same seat, same food or
(11:10):
no food or whatever, two bags of peanuts, max, whatever
it is. Uh. That is a brave new world that
we will be moving into for those of us who
are booking our own airline flights. Six one seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
(11:31):
It seems to me that the once friendly skies of
whichever airline it was, and you know which one it was,
just like I do. But the friendly skies aren't friendly anymore. Uh,
and they are now going to use AI artificial intelligence
to extract from you voluntarily more money for your airline ticket.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Six one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one
seven ninety three one ten thirty.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Back after this, you're on.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Night side with Dan Ray Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, what really long in my opening remark here? So
I'm not going to short change the call. We have
one call a waiting Archie and Saugust Archie. You stay
right there. I'm going to get you right after the news.
But what I want to do here is just emphasize
the people. Do you trust the airlines? I don't, to
(12:26):
be really honest with you, Okay. The reason I don't
is that if you have the money to fly first
class or business class, uh, you get treated pretty well.
But if you if you're flying back in coach. And
I tend to fly and coach what I do fly
and I don't fly as much now as I used to.
(12:49):
And when I did fly, I was flying on the
company's time because I was flying for work.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's you know, they look at you. I think like cattle,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I feel when you when they're nice. There's always a
flight attendant who says, good morning, how are you today.
They've been nice about it, but I just get a
feeling like, let's get on the plane. Put this, put
your luggage under the seat in front of you or
in the overhead bind let's get them on, get them off.
I And now in this story that we're that we're
(13:24):
talking about is a story that I don't know if
Delta wanted it out there already. Some US senators or
demanding answers from Delta CEO as the company moves towards
AI price model to set airfares. The thing about this,
this might work for airlines because it is one of
those items find a travel agent.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Today.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
They don't exist, at least as far as I know. Now,
maybe some companies have travel agents. Okay, but if you're
an individual, if you're a retired person and you want
to fly somewhere and you looking for your best deal,
got to get on the computer. And when this AI
program is installed by Delta, and I think it's it's
(14:10):
already installed on about three percent of their their tickets.
As they develop this set of information, they're going to
know what the worth of the flight to you is.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Now, you might say that that's capitalism.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's like a negotiation, but it's not a negotiation where
you're on the phone with someone and you can say, look,
I want to go to Los Angeles. I'm not going
to pay nine hundred dollars. I'd be more than happy
to pay five ninety nine. If you want to book it,
let's book it right now. And you know, if someone
wants to haggle with you and say, well, would you
be willing to pay seven hundred. I'd be okay with that,
(14:51):
But when you're there with a computer that is basically
furnished information for artificial intelligent about intelligence about how you
work and how you function as a consumer, and they
know that when when they say to you that that
airline ticket is going to cost you nine hundred dollars,
(15:12):
you won't flinch. They had the advantage over you. There
will be no negotiation, there will be probably no travel
agent to go to. And it bothers me. It really
does bother me, because when you're on the plane, you'll
be sitting there and coach and if you turn to
the person next you and say, hey, what should you
pay for this flight? It's kind of like those Adjucy
(15:35):
and TV. Now you paid how much for the room?
You paid one? Why'd you pay one ninety nine? We
got this room for one twenty nine. Again, I don't
think airlines well, airlines can do it, there's no question.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
But it's not going to make me happy.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
And if I'm not happy, No, you gotta fly if
you want. You can drive if you want, but you're
not going to waste your time. So here are the
numbers I want to talk about. The I guess what
I really want to talk about is airline travel. How
did we as consumers allow airlines to take control of
(16:15):
our lives in such a way that we used to
be able to as consumers exercise our muscles, and they've
they've changed it all around. So and they're going to
do it with AI six one, seven, two, five, four
ten thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty. If
(16:36):
you don't light it up, we're going to go to
a different topic. It's as simple as that. I think
this is a great topic because I think that this
artificial intelligence will will infiltrate itself into other other ways
into our lives, which is not going to be beneficial
to us in my opinion. Back on Night's side after this.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
On Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
All right, not much of a response here, so let's
see how we do it. If not, we're going to
change topics. Not going to drag it out, that's for sure.
I think this is a fascinating topic. Let's go to
Archie in Sagas. Hey, Archie, how are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Gotchies A t h I from Sagas.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I saw it. It's it's Sautchy not archie.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Right, yeah, yes, that's no problem. You can call me
anything you are.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
No problem, go ahead, and Sauchi, go ahead?
Speaker 4 (17:36):
What do you what do you call? I had a
great time, okay, traveling. I went to Shanghai, China for
three dollars round trip?
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Where was that? What? Here was that?
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Okay? That two thousand end up two and nineteen okay,
five years ago? Okay?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Really? What was the what earline? Did you get that deal?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
One?
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It's Eastern China air lank.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
And so you flew you flew from Boston.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, okay, and I went there, I
came back okay, and they provided me six meals in
the play wow, okay, three meals to get there, three
meals to come back, and of course drinks. Okay. They
(18:31):
lost money? Okay, how did you?
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I mean, let me ask you, how did you find
that deal? Okidding? Aside?
Speaker 4 (18:39):
That's okay, one of their website Okay, can I mention
it right here or now?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Sure? Why not?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Okay? It's called cheapoair dot com cheap o Air okay, okay.
And I got in there and I got that and
I just flew the air for no absolutely no reason
and three hundred twenty dollars. Then I came back.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Now, did you let me ask you this. Did you
fly from New York to China directly or did you
have to stop at a few places along the way?
Speaker 4 (19:19):
No? No direct flight, direct flight. There was no no
you know, interruption or anything that I didn't land anywhere else,
went to Shanghai, China and just came right back.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
How many days did you stay over there? If I
could ask ASSOCHI.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Oh, three days. I could have started for different and okay,
I didn't do it just once. Okay, and I took
a Kuwait Airlines. It was a little bit more and
I went through Kuwait, they landed, and I went to Shanghai. Okay,
(19:58):
and I took the one of the worst of the airlines,
the Saudi Airlines that I took. Okay, I used to
I travel a lot.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
And so that's so. So in the last few years,
you went to Shanghai twice? Did it? Is that?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Uh? Yes? Twice? I went through what do you call
other countries?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
You know?
Speaker 4 (20:25):
A lot?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Okay, soci are you retired so you can do this?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Is these your your your vacation trips? Uh?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
And then to be honest with you. I have a
conjunctive heart failure. Okay, So I didn't travel for a
long time, and my you know, my wife and kids
in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah wow, So how old, archie? How sochi? How old
are you? H?
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I mean my mid fifties. But and I got my
first heart attack when I was thirty two years old.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Now what's your prognosis here?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I mean, cogest of heart failure is not a good prognosis,
but in your fifties, it's it's probably something that you
can control.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I hope.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I'm trying my best. My father died when he was
in his sixties. My sister lives in Sydney, Australia, and
she has a heart attack. And she's a vegetarian. Me too, Yeah, okay, okay, okay,
nothing we do Okay, how I do that? You know,
(21:45):
produce any cholesterol or anything? Okay? I don't have no
cholesterol or nothing. Is just running from Yeah generation, you got.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
A genetic problem. Okay, I get it. I get it. Well.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Look, so she's to know that that there are still
some ways that people can travel and and not spend
literally their their entire life savings, and that you will
always be able to find relatively inexpensive.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Airfare, and would you like to know one of the
best part about it?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, sure, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
When I went it, got the ticket and everything, they
text me or emailed me saying they have a better offer.
If I pay another two hundred dollars, I could go
to the business class. And I say no. I say no.
I don't want to say yes because the whole ticket
(22:46):
is three hundred and something and I don't want to
pay to one an extra. So I hear you, know.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
I hear you, But you might have a little more legro.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Right I Plus I agree with you. When I go
to the airport and I asked him, is there possible
that they send me an email about upgrading? Is there
possible we could upgrade it? And they say yes, sir,
seventy dollars a business class.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
How much two hundred.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Seventy dollars extra to be a business class?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Did you say twenty Did you say.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Twenty seventy seven zero zero?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
That's well worth on a flight to share.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Way more way more than he could even think of. Okay,
And it's amazing. When I turn around and I asked
him about landing fee and the taxes. I just always
look around for what is causing amount of money they
paid for landing and take off in the US, landing
(23:51):
in China, and all those taxes and all those things. Right, okay,
if you if you plus and minus offt everything, they
lost money the airlines. And I asked him how you know?
He said possible. You know, I just always ask questions. Yeah,
and they told me the Puson's sixth sitting right next
(24:13):
to you paying three thousand four dollars for the same
exact pict Well.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
That's what we're talking about, socie. I got to run
because I'm up on my break, but I love the call.
You got to keep calling.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Okay, yes, and then you are the best always.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Thanks Sochi Sachi, appreciate very much. Talk to you soon.
Good night.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I don't want people to have to wait here. Let
me go to Janet in Rowley. Hi Janet, how are
you tonight?
Speaker 6 (24:39):
Hi good Dan? Thank you for your show. I enjoy
always enjoy listening. And the previous caller was interesting as.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
They all, wasn't it. Boy, he's got it figured out.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know, some of my Asian friends have
so many better stories than we do in the us
about our airlines. But I wanted to pass on to
you the name of a fabulous travel agent who she's
a good, old fashioned, super efficient travel agent. She's honest,
she's direct's reliable. We use her for a trip to
(25:13):
Italy and she planned every single thing and it was painless.
So I want to give you her name. Her name
is Debbie Maddio m Adeo. She is in She's in
New York. She's with Valerie Wilson Travel Agency. I'm going
to give you her number.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
How about this, do me a favorite.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Don't give me the number if you leave the number
with rub You said her name was Debbie.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
M a Eo.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
No, m A D is in Donna m A D.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
And the company's called Valerie Wilson Travel.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Yeah, it's in New York. And I got her name
from someone who's been in the travel industry for a
long time, so I knew she'd be good, and sure enough,
she was super and it was worth it, and it
just felt like, wow, is it really you know, think
about the time we spend on the phone, as you
were saying out on the internet and on hold. We
(26:10):
just went through a nightmare with Delta being on hold
for an hour and a half, no apology, no big deal.
They tell you, oh you open an hour and a
half to talk to they made a mistake on our ticket.
It just isn't worth it because you know, besides the
stress and if you get paid by you know, if
you're a consultant, you get paid by the hour, hestruckt
to think about your time, right, So to me, it's
(26:32):
not worth it. If I'm going to do a big trip,
which I don't do that often, it's to get a
travel agent and like you said, like where do you
find one?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
So well, I haven't found a good one for twenty years.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Now you have one. Okay, that's why I was calling us.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well, JENNI thank you so much. Don't hang up.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Leave the number with a Rob and Rob will give
it to me. And next time out in need, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I'm going to contact her. That's great, that's great. Wow,
asking you shall receive.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
H right, Yeah, you have a great show. I really
love it. And well I'll stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Have you called before I have?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
I have?
Speaker 6 (27:13):
Yeah? And you you're always nice and you know what
I'd like to tell you. You're very non judgmental with people,
and that makes it easier for people to call you.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, this is the part of the show I like
the best is not when I'm talking, but when I'm
having a conversation with someone like you, Oh, with soci
I learned a lot from that conversation. I mean, can
you imagine now, I would assume that if it's East
China Airline, that that airline may be highly subsidized by
(27:44):
the Chinese government. Yeah, but if I was going to
fly to China, I would now I would with the
name of that airline, I would have a conversation with
Debbie Mattio and say, what do you think about the
same fear of that airline? What do you think about
the service? And obviously h Sochi loves it clearly, and
(28:08):
he's used it before and I'm sure he'll use it again.
But now I got I got everything I could possibly need,
And I can't tell you much. I appreciate you calling
in for me. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Well, You're welcome, and thank you for the opportunities that
you give people to share information with with you and
other audience members. The last thing I wondered about, though,
is what's for their transportation secretary, what's going on with,
you know, all the problems that we hear every day.
There's a plane crash and we're not hearing anything, or
at least I'm not hearing anything from what is our
(28:41):
government doing? What is our uh? What is the sec
His name is Katy, right, the Secretary Transportation? I don't
know what I think.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I think the Secretary of Transportation is Duffy, who's a
former contress.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah, right, right, right, sorry, Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
He's a pretty sharp guy.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I would say that the problem that we had in
Washington with the crash at Reagan that was in early January,
and apparently they're now finding out that they should have
had I guess a staff of twenty nine flight controllers
and there were only nineteen who were available. There were
(29:19):
positions that weren't filled. I mean, those are just critically important,
and I would think I would hope that they would
get that squared away. In terms of the small plane crashes,
the one down on Block Island yesterday and there have
been others. I'm not a big fan of small planes,
and I'm not a big fan of helicopters. I flew
(29:40):
in too many helicopters and too many small planes. But look,
I guess the Red Sox had a horrific flight the
other day. They flew out of Boston Sunday night, heading
to Minnesota to play the Twins in this three game series,
and I guess there were several players on the flight
they hitrrific turbulence. You had another plane that hit horrific turbulence,
(30:05):
which was in tonight's newscast. Why planes don't know where
the turbulence is. I mean, I got to assume that
they have all these weather devices, et cetera to avoid turbulence.
But the Red Sox plane the other day, there were
a couple of players apparently who were on the plane
and who were really sick. I mean they used the
(30:25):
boss bags, is how bad it was. And these are
guys who fly a lot, and so normally when you
fly a lot, you don't get as nervous as.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Someone who doesn't fly.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
And a couple of the players were unavailable for that
first game in Minnesota, which they lost an extra inning.
So it can't you know, it's uh, it's it can
happen out there.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Janet.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Please leave that number with with my producer, and I
thank you and I look forward to your next call.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
Thank you for all for all your for all your shows.
They've been great.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Thank you very much. Je I appreciate it. Rob, get
that for me. Okay, now I'm going to take a break.
Let's get a couple more calls in here. Do you
trust the airlines or maybe maybe if the airlines goes
to artificial intelligence as their weapon of choice trying to
get as much money out of you as possible, maybe
(31:21):
it will allow travel agents to come back. I mean,
I would be more than happy to use a travel
agent knowing that I'm going to pay a fee which
would be built into the ticket price for the travel agent,
if that travel agent will get me a better deal.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
So let's keep this going here. I like this topic.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
You haven't risen to the occasion, but I hope we
can get this into the second hour. If not, I'll
go somewhere else. But this is something that all of
us at some point are going to get on an airplane,
some more often than others. Artificial intelligence is going to
do a lot of good things for us. It's also
going to do a lot of good things for corporations.
And I think Delta has basically that, Hey, they're using
(32:01):
artificial intelligence to figure out what you, yeah, what you
will pay for your airline ticket, not what the average
flight consumer will play. But they're going to be able
to get more money out of you by using artificial
intelligence which they can develop on you. That's where we're
going back on night side after this six one, seven, two, five,
(32:21):
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten
thirty is is all fear in love war in airline travel?
I guess it is back after this. Okay, we're back.
Let's go to Richie checking in from the Big App,
well somewhere in New York, maybe not the Big Apple, Richie, welcome.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (32:44):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:44):
And then I leave Boston. I go to New York
every writ and back.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Well, thank you very much for calling back. What you're
what you're taking all of this?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Are you concerned about the airlines having the advantage over
you with me but by using artificial intelligence to figure
out what we're likely to be willing to pay for
an airline ticket?
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Yeah, very much concerned. If I fly to Florida about
five times a year, we have a condo down there,
and I used to use a search engine because they
were always kind of cheaper. But if you ever had
to make a change. The airlines didn't want nothing to
do with it. You were to call like EXPI or
one of the other ones that they charge, you're like
seventy five one hundred dollars to make the change. Well,
(33:24):
and the airlines been smart and their prices are pretty
much the same, maybe a dollar different, so whatever. And
you go on like a jet Bluid Australia different what
price is up for different days and it's crazy one
day to you know, one hundred dollars cheaper than a
one day of cheaper than a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
You know, well, that doesn't bother me in the sense
that Look if if a big travel day is the
day before Christmas or the day before Thanksgiving or Fridays
during the summertime, you know, that's okay. Let's let you know,
if I want to save some money, I'm going to
fly on a Wednesday or Thursday by the idea that
(34:01):
when I you know, go to the Delta Airline website
and they have information about am I a big spender?
Am I somebody who's always buying stuff on Amazon? Am
I do I watch my pennies? And they know that
that you're you know more cautious than I am. And
(34:21):
the only amount of money you're going to pay for
that seat is three hundred, and they're going to charge
me seven hundred because they know that my inclination is
going to be, Oh, what the heck I want to go?
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Didn't know too much about your life as it is now,
no question, you know, yeah, by one of my petis.
And I love to fly, but I'm over. I to
remember when you got a sandwich or a hot meal,
but now you're lucky to get a bag of team
that I sometimes I just keep before I get on
the plane.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I remember we used to fly, you know, we would
fly to Washington a lot to cover you know, political
stories for television WB's and you'd leave it like eight
thirty in the morning, and there was a nice and
nice hot breakfast coffee, orange juice, scrambled eggs, you know,
some sort of meat, weather sausage or whatever you wanted. Yeah,
(35:14):
and then all of a sudden it became sort of
a prepackaged thing where you got a little bit of
yogurt maybe and a couple of pieces of fruit. And
then now is everybody just you feel like your monkey's
in the zoup bag of peanuts, bag of peanuts, what
taguone peanuts exactly. Yeah, and the seams are smaller. So
I got a lot of problem with the airlines. Okay,
(35:37):
I got lots of problems with the airlines and the
fact that they're now going to be able to use
artificial intelligence. Look, when you and I go to the
grocery store, you buy what's on the shelf. You the buyer,
you don't there's no artificial intelligence involved. But for the airlines,
artificial intelligence is going to help them a lot.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Well, I'm not two years ago. I remember I was
got longer, and they had it looked like a real person,
but exactly a mannequin, but it was a codboard thing
and it was something you'd see a Disney World years ago,
and it was about talking about that aie. You would
look at it a real person talking. That's what they
were getting into it, exactly, that's.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
What that's what's coming out of the night. You know, Hey, rich, thanks.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
My one my biggest pet peep is when I get
on the plane, the bit above my seat should be
for me. Half the time you get there as already fault,
you know.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, Well, the problem is sometimes when you take it
you're sitting in your seat and some knucklehead comes along
and he's gonna slam a jam of his backpack in there,
and oh yeah, anyway, it's almost better put it under
your own seat and you control it.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Hey, Rich, thank you much. We'll talk again. Thanks, all right,
a great night.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Okay, that topic did not generate a lot of interest,
so therefore we're going to move on to something else
simple as that.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Coming back after the eleven
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBS Costin's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, I just want to thank all the callers and
also doctor Sharuk uh Leasi head and Neck Chief, Head
and Neck Surgeon, uh Bring Beth Israel, Deaconess cancer surgeon.
He was an extraordinary guest and I think that we
(00:28):
very well may use him for best of our eleven
o'clock show on Sunday night. I'll let you know on
that tomorrow. But we do every Sunday night at eleven
on Nightside the best of Nightside from the prior week,
in some cases a couple of weeks ahead of time
for people who might have missed that hour. If you
(00:50):
want to rehear that hour, you can always go tomorrow
to Nightside on demand dot com. That is where all
our podcasts are posted. Rob posts every night right after
the show, meaning from midnight to take some a good hour,
hour and a half and he gets the eighth, the nine,
the ten, and the eleven posted. They're posted in kind
(01:13):
of reverse order. So when you open up Nightside and
Demand tomorrow morning, the first hour you will see is
the eleven, and then the next hour down is the ten,
preceded by the nine and preceded by the eight. So
this is a way in which you can if you
miss an hour of Nightside, and I hope you never do.
I want to thank all the callers too. That was
(01:33):
really a good a good hour and a lot of
great questions from my audience. I actually didn't get to
all the questions I had, but I will always defer
to the questions from the audience over some of my questions.
Let me once again, we're sort of reminding you a
lot here, but please understand we want you to become
(01:55):
a part of the night Side broadcast and a part
of the team, and we will remind you that we
have this new iHeartRadio app that has with it a
talkback feature. So all have to do is pull down
the new and improved iHeart Radio app, pretty easy to
find at any of the app stores, put it on
your desktop and your laptop, on your tablet, on your smartphone,
(02:19):
your smart watch or whatever you know where to put it.
And so while you listen to night Side, and if
you're so moved listening to us on WBZ News Radio
at night, you can.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Just tap the red microphone talkback button. Again.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Obviously, we encourage people to call and participate as callers.
But if you want to make a quick comment within
like thirty seconds, you make that give us that personalized
audio message.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Again, it can be.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Critical, it could be constructively critical. It might even be complimentary. Okay,
and we will play it back. Got to keep it
clean though. Remember this is FCC regulated radio. So it's
that simple.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Again.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You hit the red microphone button in the top right
corner of the app while seen to night's side, and
send us your audio message.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Okay. Now I want to go to.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
A subject that I learned about today. Actually, my producer
Karen Bussemi have brought it to my attention. I would
say that most of us who have traveled by airplane,
whether you're a new traveler by airplane, but more importantly,
if you traveled by airplane, you know, back if you
(03:27):
were lucky enough to travel in the sixties or seventies
or eighties, air travel was a little different then. It
was less crowded, the seats provided more room. Generally on
a flight of any duration, the airline gave you a meal.
I can remember flying from Boston to Washington, or even
(03:50):
Boston to New York and you get a very nice
hot breakfast which would have some, you know, some of
egg and maybe bacon, maybe sausage or something. And they
would always be in English muffin and orange juice and coffee.
How they did it, I don't know, but they did.
And of course, now if you're on a cross country trip,
(04:12):
you're lucky to get a bag of peanuts.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And maybe if you want a beer.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You have to pay ten dollars for it, and by
the way, you're not you can't pay cash.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It's got to be done on a credit card. All
of that.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So there's a lot to complain about when we talk
about airlines. I don't think the airlines are focusing as
much on safety as they should. I've been watching the
National Transportation Safety Board hearings down in Washington this week
about the crash that took the lives of sixty seven
(04:42):
people between the plane coming in a Reagan airport, a
Reagan in National Airport and the Army black Hawk helicopter
which collided in mid air. I think there were sixty
four people on the plane, including the crew, the passengers
and crew, and there were three people on the Army
black Hawk helicopter. How that could have happened literally within
(05:03):
sight of the control tower is inexplicable. And just watching
some of the reports from Channel five tonight, it appeared
as if there were more questions raised than answered. So
against that backdrop of again, airline travel, which used to
be special. Now if you've only traveled on planes for
(05:27):
the last ten years, it hasn't been special for about
twenty years.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's not special anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
You get to the airport, you got to get your
ticket at a kiosk, You got to.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Go through a lot of aggravation.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They charge you for luggage. They don't charge you for luggage.
People of drag luggage on the overhat. The overhead bins
are packed in full. If you get an opening and
you put your piece of luggage up there, who knows
what happens to it?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And others slam a jam in the air luggage.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Up And against that as a backdrop, now Delta Airlines
has decided that.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I guess they have what's.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Called dynamic pricing, okay, And the Delta Airlines has decided
that they are going to move away from a set
price for a ticket.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Again, in the old days, you would call your travel
agent and you would say, can you book me tomorrow afternoon?
To Washington and your travel agent would find you the
best price to you based upon the parameters that you
travel agent's very difficult, if ever, now to find. Okay,
(06:49):
So now what do you do. You go on the
computer and you book the ticket yourself, and you see
what the price is, and there it is. I mean,
they used to be a strategy. Some of you will
remember that you wouldn't buy your airline ticket six months
in advance because they would put out the high priced tickets.
(07:09):
The same ticket would go down as if the plane
didn't fill up. Now, the risk you took was if
the plane filled up and the seats were gone, well
you blew it.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But if you waited and.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
You hit it right, you could get a six hundred
dollars seat maybe a couple of weeks before the plane
was full for two hundred.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Now, what they're going to do is they're going to
incorporate AI powered dynamic pricing because through you know AI,
which none of us truly understand this, okay, but it's
(07:50):
artificial intelligence. As I joke, I'm waiting for some real intelligence.
They are going to be able to figure out what
you will pay for your airline ticket. So when you
go on your computer at some point in the future
for Delta and you say I want.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
To fly to California. They'll say, okay, when do you
want to go?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Okay, I want to go on August twentieth. What time
of day do you want to go? I prefer morning?
And you fill in mourning and they'll give you a
couple of choices. One flight leaves at six thirty two early,
but one flight flight leaves at ten thirty Okay, So
now you will put all the information in and they
(08:33):
will have information on you. So you will be dealing
through a commuter through a computer I should say better
with a computer.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Computer.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You'll be dealing through the computer, and you will be
dealing with a robotic AI powered pricing mechanism. It is
the only way I can describe it. And they will
know if you're someone who is a profligate spender or
someone who watches your pennies. How will they know that, Well,
(09:05):
they'll have information from you when you have bought through
Amazon et cetera. Are you somebody who buys everything that
you see or are you someone who watches very carefully?
So they will have all of that information on you.
As I understand it, and some of you are going
to understand this better than me, and they will say, okay,
we can put you on that flight cross country. Let's
(09:27):
say that the average price on that flight one way is.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Six hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Let's just say it's six hundred dollars to get from
Boston to Los Angeles to Boston and San Francisco. But
if they think that you will pay more, you won't
see a price. They won't say, Okay, you can be
on this plane for five hundred dollars. No, they will say,
if you're willing to take and buy this ticket, now,
(09:56):
you can have this ticket for nine and fifty.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
They believe.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They believe that that is going to increase their bottom
line because they think that they will be able to
figure out how much you you, you personally will pay
for that ticket, not how much the ticket is really worth,
but how much you.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Will pay for the ticket. Now. If that's not scary,
I don't know what is.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Because for them to figure that out. So, if let's
say we're on two separate computers and you're you're a
free spender, I'm a little bit more cautious conservative. We're
looking at the.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Same flight we're sitting next to each other.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
On different separate computers, and they will say to you,
your price is nine hundred and fifty dollars hypothetically, and
they will say to me, your price is for ninety
nine same flight, same plane, same seat, same food or
(11:10):
no food or whatever, two bags of peanuts, max, whatever
it is. Uh. That is a brave new world that
we will be moving into for those of us who
are booking our own airline flights. Six one seven, two, five, four,
ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
(11:31):
It seems to me that the once friendly skies of
whichever airline it was, and you know which one it was,
just like I do. But the friendly skies aren't friendly anymore. Uh,
and they are now going to use AI artificial intelligence
to extract from you voluntarily more money for your airline ticket.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Six one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one
seven ninety three one ten thirty.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Back after this, you're on.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Night side with Dan Ray Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, what really long in my opening remark here? So
I'm not going to short change the call. We have
one call a waiting Archie and Saugust Archie. You stay
right there. I'm going to get you right after the news.
But what I want to do here is just emphasize
the people. Do you trust the airlines? I don't, to
(12:26):
be really honest with you, Okay. The reason I don't
is that if you have the money to fly first
class or business class, uh, you get treated pretty well.
But if you if you're flying back in coach. And
I tend to fly and coach what I do fly
and I don't fly as much now as I used to.
(12:49):
And when I did fly, I was flying on the
company's time because I was flying for work.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's you know, they look at you. I think like cattle,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I feel when you when they're nice. There's always a
flight attendant who says, good morning, how are you today.
They've been nice about it, but I just get a
feeling like, let's get on the plane. Put this, put
your luggage under the seat in front of you or
in the overhead bind let's get them on, get them off.
I And now in this story that we're that we're
(13:24):
talking about is a story that I don't know if
Delta wanted it out there already. Some US senators or
demanding answers from Delta CEO as the company moves towards
AI price model to set airfares. The thing about this,
this might work for airlines because it is one of
those items find a travel agent.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Today.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
They don't exist, at least as far as I know. Now,
maybe some companies have travel agents. Okay, but if you're
an individual, if you're a retired person and you want
to fly somewhere and you looking for your best deal,
got to get on the computer. And when this AI
program is installed by Delta, and I think it's it's
(14:10):
already installed on about three percent of their their tickets.
As they develop this set of information, they're going to
know what the worth of the flight to you is.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Now, you might say that that's capitalism.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's like a negotiation, but it's not a negotiation where
you're on the phone with someone and you can say, look,
I want to go to Los Angeles. I'm not going
to pay nine hundred dollars. I'd be more than happy
to pay five ninety nine. If you want to book it,
let's book it right now. And you know, if someone
wants to haggle with you and say, well, would you
be willing to pay seven hundred. I'd be okay with that,
(14:51):
But when you're there with a computer that is basically
furnished information for artificial intelligent about intelligence about how you
work and how you function as a consumer, and they
know that when when they say to you that that
airline ticket is going to cost you nine hundred dollars,
(15:12):
you won't flinch. They had the advantage over you. There
will be no negotiation, there will be probably no travel
agent to go to. And it bothers me. It really
does bother me, because when you're on the plane, you'll
be sitting there and coach and if you turn to
the person next you and say, hey, what should you
pay for this flight? It's kind of like those Adjucy
(15:35):
and TV. Now you paid how much for the room?
You paid one? Why'd you pay one ninety nine? We
got this room for one twenty nine. Again, I don't
think airlines well, airlines can do it, there's no question.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
But it's not going to make me happy.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
And if I'm not happy, No, you gotta fly if
you want. You can drive if you want, but you're
not going to waste your time. So here are the
numbers I want to talk about. The I guess what
I really want to talk about is airline travel. How
did we as consumers allow airlines to take control of
(16:15):
our lives in such a way that we used to
be able to as consumers exercise our muscles, and they've
they've changed it all around. So and they're going to
do it with AI six one, seven, two, five, four
ten thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty. If
(16:36):
you don't light it up, we're going to go to
a different topic. It's as simple as that. I think
this is a great topic because I think that this
artificial intelligence will will infiltrate itself into other other ways
into our lives, which is not going to be beneficial
to us in my opinion. Back on Night's side after this.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
On Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
All right, not much of a response here, so let's
see how we do it. If not, we're going to
change topics. Not going to drag it out, that's for sure.
I think this is a fascinating topic. Let's go to
Archie in Sagas. Hey, Archie, how are you tonight?
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Gotchies A t h I from Sagas.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I saw it. It's it's Sautchy not archie.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Right, yeah, yes, that's no problem. You can call me
anything you are.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
No problem, go ahead, and Sauchi, go ahead?
Speaker 4 (17:36):
What do you what do you call? I had a
great time, okay, traveling. I went to Shanghai, China for
three dollars round trip?
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Where was that? What? Here was that?
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Okay? That two thousand end up two and nineteen okay,
five years ago? Okay?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Really? What was the what earline? Did you get that deal?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
One?
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It's Eastern China air lank.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
And so you flew you flew from Boston.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, okay, and I went there, I
came back okay, and they provided me six meals in
the play wow, okay, three meals to get there, three
meals to come back, and of course drinks. Okay. They
(18:31):
lost money? Okay, how did you?
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I mean, let me ask you, how did you find
that deal? Okidding? Aside?
Speaker 4 (18:39):
That's okay, one of their website Okay, can I mention
it right here or now?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Sure? Why not?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Okay? It's called cheapoair dot com cheap o Air okay, okay.
And I got in there and I got that and
I just flew the air for no absolutely no reason
and three hundred twenty dollars. Then I came back.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Now, did you let me ask you this. Did you
fly from New York to China directly or did you
have to stop at a few places along the way?
Speaker 4 (19:19):
No? No direct flight, direct flight. There was no no
you know, interruption or anything that I didn't land anywhere else,
went to Shanghai, China and just came right back.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
How many days did you stay over there? If I
could ask ASSOCHI.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Oh, three days. I could have started for different and okay,
I didn't do it just once. Okay, and I took
a Kuwait Airlines. It was a little bit more and
I went through Kuwait, they landed, and I went to Shanghai. Okay,
(19:58):
and I took the one of the worst of the airlines,
the Saudi Airlines that I took. Okay, I used to
I travel a lot.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
And so that's so. So in the last few years,
you went to Shanghai twice? Did it? Is that?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Uh? Yes? Twice? I went through what do you call
other countries?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
You know?
Speaker 4 (20:25):
A lot?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Okay, soci are you retired so you can do this?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Is these your your your vacation trips? Uh?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
And then to be honest with you. I have a
conjunctive heart failure. Okay, So I didn't travel for a
long time, and my you know, my wife and kids
in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah wow, So how old, archie? How sochi? How old
are you? H?
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I mean my mid fifties. But and I got my
first heart attack when I was thirty two years old.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Now what's your prognosis here?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I mean, cogest of heart failure is not a good prognosis,
but in your fifties, it's it's probably something that you
can control.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I hope.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I'm trying my best. My father died when he was
in his sixties. My sister lives in Sydney, Australia, and
she has a heart attack. And she's a vegetarian. Me too, Yeah, okay, okay, okay,
nothing we do Okay, how I do that? You know,
(21:45):
produce any cholesterol or anything? Okay? I don't have no
cholesterol or nothing. Is just running from Yeah generation, you got.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
A genetic problem. Okay, I get it. I get it. Well.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Look, so she's to know that that there are still
some ways that people can travel and and not spend
literally their their entire life savings, and that you will
always be able to find relatively inexpensive.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Airfare, and would you like to know one of the
best part about it?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, sure, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
When I went it, got the ticket and everything, they
text me or emailed me saying they have a better offer.
If I pay another two hundred dollars, I could go
to the business class. And I say no. I say no.
I don't want to say yes because the whole ticket
(22:46):
is three hundred and something and I don't want to
pay to one an extra. So I hear you, know.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
I hear you, But you might have a little more legro.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Right I Plus I agree with you. When I go
to the airport and I asked him, is there possible
that they send me an email about upgrading? Is there
possible we could upgrade it? And they say yes, sir,
seventy dollars a business class.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
How much two hundred.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Seventy dollars extra to be a business class?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Did you say twenty Did you say.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Twenty seventy seven zero zero?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
That's well worth on a flight to share.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Way more way more than he could even think of. Okay,
And it's amazing. When I turn around and I asked
him about landing fee and the taxes. I just always
look around for what is causing amount of money they
paid for landing and take off in the US, landing
(23:51):
in China, and all those taxes and all those things. Right, okay,
if you if you plus and minus offt everything, they
lost money the airlines. And I asked him how you know?
He said possible. You know, I just always ask questions. Yeah,
and they told me the Puson's sixth sitting right next
(24:13):
to you paying three thousand four dollars for the same
exact pict Well.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
That's what we're talking about, socie. I got to run
because I'm up on my break, but I love the call.
You got to keep calling.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Okay, yes, and then you are the best always.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Thanks Sochi Sachi, appreciate very much. Talk to you soon.
Good night.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I don't want people to have to wait here. Let
me go to Janet in Rowley. Hi Janet, how are
you tonight?
Speaker 6 (24:39):
Hi good Dan? Thank you for your show. I enjoy
always enjoy listening. And the previous caller was interesting as.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
They all, wasn't it. Boy, he's got it figured out.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know, some of my Asian friends have
so many better stories than we do in the us
about our airlines. But I wanted to pass on to
you the name of a fabulous travel agent who she's
a good, old fashioned, super efficient travel agent. She's honest,
she's direct's reliable. We use her for a trip to
(25:13):
Italy and she planned every single thing and it was painless.
So I want to give you her name. Her name
is Debbie Maddio m Adeo. She is in She's in
New York. She's with Valerie Wilson Travel Agency. I'm going
to give you her number.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
How about this, do me a favorite.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Don't give me the number if you leave the number
with rub You said her name was Debbie.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
M a Eo.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
No, m A D is in Donna m A D.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
And the company's called Valerie Wilson Travel.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
Yeah, it's in New York. And I got her name
from someone who's been in the travel industry for a
long time, so I knew she'd be good, and sure enough,
she was super and it was worth it, and it
just felt like, wow, is it really you know, think
about the time we spend on the phone, as you
were saying out on the internet and on hold. We
(26:10):
just went through a nightmare with Delta being on hold
for an hour and a half, no apology, no big deal.
They tell you, oh you open an hour and a
half to talk to they made a mistake on our ticket.
It just isn't worth it because you know, besides the
stress and if you get paid by you know, if
you're a consultant, you get paid by the hour, hestruckt
to think about your time, right, So to me, it's
(26:32):
not worth it. If I'm going to do a big trip,
which I don't do that often, it's to get a
travel agent and like you said, like where do you
find one?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
So well, I haven't found a good one for twenty years.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
Now you have one. Okay, that's why I was calling us.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well, JENNI thank you so much. Don't hang up.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Leave the number with a Rob and Rob will give
it to me. And next time out in need, I'm gonna.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I'm going to contact her. That's great, that's great. Wow,
asking you shall receive.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
H right, Yeah, you have a great show. I really
love it. And well I'll stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Have you called before I have?
Speaker 4 (27:13):
I have?
Speaker 6 (27:13):
Yeah? And you you're always nice and you know what
I'd like to tell you. You're very non judgmental with people,
and that makes it easier for people to call you.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, this is the part of the show I like
the best is not when I'm talking, but when I'm
having a conversation with someone like you, Oh, with soci
I learned a lot from that conversation. I mean, can
you imagine now, I would assume that if it's East
China Airline, that that airline may be highly subsidized by
(27:44):
the Chinese government. Yeah, but if I was going to
fly to China, I would now I would with the
name of that airline, I would have a conversation with
Debbie Mattio and say, what do you think about the
same fear of that airline? What do you think about
the service? And obviously h Sochi loves it clearly, and
(28:08):
he's used it before and I'm sure he'll use it again.
But now I got I got everything I could possibly need,
And I can't tell you much. I appreciate you calling
in for me. I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Well, You're welcome, and thank you for the opportunities that
you give people to share information with with you and
other audience members. The last thing I wondered about, though,
is what's for their transportation secretary, what's going on with,
you know, all the problems that we hear every day.
There's a plane crash and we're not hearing anything, or
at least I'm not hearing anything from what is our
(28:41):
government doing? What is our uh? What is the sec
His name is Katy, right, the Secretary Transportation? I don't
know what I think.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I think the Secretary of Transportation is Duffy, who's a
former contress.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah, right, right, right, sorry, Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
He's a pretty sharp guy.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
I would say that the problem that we had in
Washington with the crash at Reagan that was in early January,
and apparently they're now finding out that they should have
had I guess a staff of twenty nine flight controllers
and there were only nineteen who were available. There were
(29:19):
positions that weren't filled. I mean, those are just critically important,
and I would think I would hope that they would
get that squared away. In terms of the small plane crashes,
the one down on Block Island yesterday and there have
been others. I'm not a big fan of small planes,
and I'm not a big fan of helicopters. I flew
(29:40):
in too many helicopters and too many small planes. But look,
I guess the Red Sox had a horrific flight the
other day. They flew out of Boston Sunday night, heading
to Minnesota to play the Twins in this three game series,
and I guess there were several players on the flight
they hitrrific turbulence. You had another plane that hit horrific turbulence,
(30:05):
which was in tonight's newscast. Why planes don't know where
the turbulence is. I mean, I got to assume that
they have all these weather devices, et cetera to avoid turbulence.
But the Red Sox plane the other day, there were
a couple of players apparently who were on the plane
and who were really sick. I mean they used the
(30:25):
boss bags, is how bad it was. And these are
guys who fly a lot, and so normally when you
fly a lot, you don't get as nervous as.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Someone who doesn't fly.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
And a couple of the players were unavailable for that
first game in Minnesota, which they lost an extra inning.
So it can't you know, it's uh, it's it can
happen out there.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Janet.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Please leave that number with with my producer, and I
thank you and I look forward to your next call.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
Thank you for all for all your for all your shows.
They've been great.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Thank you very much. Je I appreciate it. Rob, get
that for me. Okay, now I'm going to take a break.
Let's get a couple more calls in here. Do you
trust the airlines or maybe maybe if the airlines goes
to artificial intelligence as their weapon of choice trying to
get as much money out of you as possible, maybe
(31:21):
it will allow travel agents to come back. I mean,
I would be more than happy to use a travel
agent knowing that I'm going to pay a fee which
would be built into the ticket price for the travel agent,
if that travel agent will get me a better deal.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
So let's keep this going here. I like this topic.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
You haven't risen to the occasion, but I hope we
can get this into the second hour. If not, I'll
go somewhere else. But this is something that all of
us at some point are going to get on an airplane,
some more often than others. Artificial intelligence is going to
do a lot of good things for us. It's also
going to do a lot of good things for corporations.
And I think Delta has basically that, Hey, they're using
(32:01):
artificial intelligence to figure out what you, yeah, what you
will pay for your airline ticket, not what the average
flight consumer will play. But they're going to be able
to get more money out of you by using artificial
intelligence which they can develop on you. That's where we're
going back on night side after this six one, seven, two, five,
(32:21):
four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten
thirty is is all fear in love war in airline travel?
I guess it is back after this. Okay, we're back.
Let's go to Richie checking in from the Big App,
well somewhere in New York, maybe not the Big Apple, Richie, welcome.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (32:44):
You know?
Speaker 5 (32:44):
And then I leave Boston. I go to New York
every writ and back.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Well, thank you very much for calling back. What you're
what you're taking all of this?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Are you concerned about the airlines having the advantage over
you with me but by using artificial intelligence to figure
out what we're likely to be willing to pay for
an airline ticket?
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Yeah, very much concerned. If I fly to Florida about
five times a year, we have a condo down there,
and I used to use a search engine because they
were always kind of cheaper. But if you ever had
to make a change. The airlines didn't want nothing to
do with it. You were to call like EXPI or
one of the other ones that they charge, you're like
seventy five one hundred dollars to make the change. Well,
(33:24):
and the airlines been smart and their prices are pretty
much the same, maybe a dollar different, so whatever. And
you go on like a jet Bluid Australia different what
price is up for different days and it's crazy one
day to you know, one hundred dollars cheaper than a
one day of cheaper than a Thursday.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
You know, well, that doesn't bother me in the sense
that Look if if a big travel day is the
day before Christmas or the day before Thanksgiving or Fridays
during the summertime, you know, that's okay. Let's let you know,
if I want to save some money, I'm going to
fly on a Wednesday or Thursday by the idea that
(34:01):
when I you know, go to the Delta Airline website
and they have information about am I a big spender?
Am I somebody who's always buying stuff on Amazon? Am
I do I watch my pennies? And they know that
that you're you know more cautious than I am. And
(34:21):
the only amount of money you're going to pay for
that seat is three hundred, and they're going to charge
me seven hundred because they know that my inclination is
going to be, Oh, what the heck I want to go?
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Didn't know too much about your life as it is now,
no question, you know, yeah, by one of my petis.
And I love to fly, but I'm over. I to
remember when you got a sandwich or a hot meal,
but now you're lucky to get a bag of team
that I sometimes I just keep before I get on
the plane.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I remember we used to fly, you know, we would
fly to Washington a lot to cover you know, political
stories for television WB's and you'd leave it like eight
thirty in the morning, and there was a nice and
nice hot breakfast coffee, orange juice, scrambled eggs, you know,
some sort of meat, weather sausage or whatever you wanted. Yeah,
(35:14):
and then all of a sudden it became sort of
a prepackaged thing where you got a little bit of
yogurt maybe and a couple of pieces of fruit. And
then now is everybody just you feel like your monkey's
in the zoup bag of peanuts, bag of peanuts, what
taguone peanuts exactly. Yeah, and the seams are smaller. So
I got a lot of problem with the airlines. Okay,
(35:37):
I got lots of problems with the airlines and the
fact that they're now going to be able to use
artificial intelligence. Look, when you and I go to the
grocery store, you buy what's on the shelf. You the buyer,
you don't there's no artificial intelligence involved. But for the airlines,
artificial intelligence is going to help them a lot.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Well, I'm not two years ago. I remember I was
got longer, and they had it looked like a real person,
but exactly a mannequin, but it was a codboard thing
and it was something you'd see a Disney World years ago,
and it was about talking about that aie. You would
look at it a real person talking. That's what they
were getting into it, exactly, that's.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
What that's what's coming out of the night. You know, Hey, rich, thanks.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
My one my biggest pet peep is when I get
on the plane, the bit above my seat should be
for me. Half the time you get there as already fault,
you know.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, Well, the problem is sometimes when you take it
you're sitting in your seat and some knucklehead comes along
and he's gonna slam a jam of his backpack in there,
and oh yeah, anyway, it's almost better put it under
your own seat and you control it.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Hey, Rich, thank you much. We'll talk again. Thanks, all right,
a great night.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Okay, that topic did not generate a lot of interest,
so therefore we're going to move on to something else
simple as that.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Coming back after the eleven
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