The FTC Wants to Know Exactly How Airlines Price Your Ticket

0:00Bailey Schulz: ZS is a global consulting and technology firm that partners with companies to improve life and how we live it. Working with the world's top hospitality brands, ZS brings together data, science, technology, and human ingenuity to transform ideas into customer loyalty. They're ready to help you elevate guest experiences, improve operations, and uncover preferences and motivations through their AI-powered solutions. With more than 1 ,700 clients in over 170 countries, ZS has built the expertise, fortitude, and vision to help you deliver impact right where it matters.

0:47The FTC wants to know exactly how airlines price your plane tickets. The math behind cruise lines putting megaships on weekend trips isn't proven yet. and Mexico just opened a$1.5 billion theme park built for people who hate theme park lines. Welcome back to the Skift Daily Briefing. This is Bailey Schultz, Global Tourism Reporter. It's Thursday, November 5th. Let's get into it. First up, airline pricing has entered the microscope again. The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Delta, United, and JetBlue to hand over data on how they set fares, and they have 45 days to respond. It's part of a broader FTC study on whether companies use personal information to set prices.

1:28Uber, DoorDash, Target, and Walmart got similar orders. Airlines have long-use dynamic pricing, which moves fares with supply and demand, but deny using surveillance pricing, which uses personal data to set prices. But the scrutiny has been building. Delta uses AI from a startup called Fetcher to price some fares, and a class action filed in April alleges JetBlue uses trackers to set prices. About a dozen states have proposed bills this year limiting how companies use customer data, and six states have proposed banning surveillance pricing outright. Next up, cruise lines are moving their biggest ships onto weekend trips.

2:03But is it better business? Royal Caribbean put Utopia of the Seas, an Oasis-class megaship, on three - and four-night trips out of Port Canaveral in 2024. Carnival's Mardi Gras follows in May 2027 with four - and five-day Bahamas sailings. Royal Caribbean CEO Jason Liberty's pitch, half the company's guests are millennials or younger. They make more trips, and he says they spend about as much on a short cruise as on a week-long one. The logic is that a ship on all training short trips serves two groups a week instead of one. That's a second shot at selling drink packages, specialty dining, and excursions.

2:38It also means twice the embarkations and cabin turnovers. Norwegian offers a warning. It cuts its average cruise from about 8.6 days to 7.5 and carried 24 % more passengers in the first nine months of the year. But revenue per passenger day fell about 4%, and gross margin per passenger day dropped nearly 11%. That's not a clean test, since Norwegian has its own pricing and execution problems. But it punctures the idea that more passengers automatically means better economics. And finally, Mexico just opened what its developer calls the world's first luxury theme park, and it wants your incentive group.

3:16Bond Luxury Theme Park opened in late October at a 2 ,500-acre resort on Mexico's Pacific coast. Bond stands for Beauty of Nature, and the price tag is$1.5 billion. The park is positioning itself as different from other theme parks, with less crowds, short waits, and luxury service. For now, it's only open to guests at the resort's six hotels. The public gets in starting in 2027. For planners, that means private red access, VIP seating for shows and parades, and group dinners in the park. Starting next year, a section can host private events of up to 2 ,000 guests. But Mexico has been losing ground with North American Incentive Fire.

3:55The resort sits near Jalisco, home to Puerto Vallarta's airport, where cartel violence in February disrupted flights. And the state where the resort sits has a Level 2 travel advisory from the U.S. State Department. That's it for your Skift Daily Briefing. For more of these stories, head to skift.com and sign up for our newsletter at skift.com backslash daily.

4:28Bailey Schulz: ZS is a global consulting and technology firm that partners with companies to improve life and how we live it. Working with the world's top hospitality brands, ZS brings together data, science, technology, and human ingenuity to transform ideas into customer loyalty. They're ready to help you elevate guest experiences, improve operations, and uncover preferences and motivations through their AI-powered solutions. With more than 1 ,700 clients in over 170 countries, ZS has built the expertise, fortitude, and vision to help you deliver impact right where it matters.