cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51259064
Shopping for airfare is clearly a game full of shenanigans. You find a cheap ticket, get a (likely fake) indicator warning how few seats are available with a countdown timer, rush through a lengthy process of being forced to make a shit-ton of decisions like whether you want to buy an neck wrap, selfie stick, a bad travel insurance deal, … lots of shit to get through to slow you down. You finally get to the last screen and it says “price has increased since we first quoted you”. Motherfuckers.
Considering aircraft are quite shitty for climate, why not make the airlines shenanigans backfire against them? We have bots arbitrarily hit the air travel sites, enter bogus orders but never submit the last page. Just give the airlines a false indicator of demand. This games their dynamic pricing to quote prices higher than optimum. Any deviation from optimum prices translates into lower profit, likely a consequence of lower sales.
Perhaps an org like Greenpeace would be interested in this tactic.
Inflated prices for non-existent demand will just lead to price crashes close to boarding as they try to fill seats, or worse partially filled planes flying instead of fully filled planes flying (thereby increasing the carbon cost per passenger)
Pretty stupid. A slightly more expensive seat isn’t going to deter travel, but it will boost airline profits.