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Comment by hirundo | Hacker News Reader

That's ridiculous, if they had an AI that could accurately predict prices, they would quickly become one of the largest, most powerful corporations in the world.

Uh, wait ...

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The profit from accurately predicting future prices would dwarf advertising / computing revenue. The problem with any prediction is as soon as it's acted on or made public it starts to affect the system requiring an updated prediction. If enough people buy into the prediction it's a self fulfilling prophecy. So much of pricing is influenced by human nature though. Good luck predicting that consistently over time.

Also, the airlines could change their algorithm - randomly. If for no other reason than to muck with Google.

From their detail page:

> How much money can I get back? Price guarantee pays you the difference between the flight price when you book and the lowest ticket price. To get money back, the price difference must be greater than $5. You can receive up to $500 back total for all of the flights you book with Google price guarantee.

That’d be pretty hilarious for an airline to explicitly dick them over for $500 a pop.

Somehow I think Google would manage to outsmart them at their own game.

Only problem is that it would also mean $500 less revenue for the airline.

IE: your model gains so much impact that it starts to impact the model itself.

What if airlines suddenly sold tickets for a fixed price like every other ticket on earth?

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