The author found the same flight priced nearly 45% higher in the browser where the airline recognized his frequent flier account, as loyalty programs become tools for personalized pricing.
Airlines have always charged different people different prices for the same seat. What is new is that the price is now set by who you are, not by a coarse rule like whether you stay over a Saturday. The practice is called surveillance pricing: an algorithm reads your spending data and guesses the most you will pay.
Your loyalty card is a surcharge card
Rewards used to be based on miles flown. Airlines around the world have quietly switched to rewarding how much you spend. The less obvious part: they can only know what you spent if you buy straight from their own site. Book on Expedia or through a travel agent, and the points are insultingly small.
The author says British Airways once credited him 12 points on a $2,000 Alaska Airlines ticket, when gold status needs 50,000. Pushing you back to the airline's own site is exactly how it collects the data to price you individually.
A different browser, a cheaper fare
The author could only log in to his Air Canada account on a second browser. Same flight, same link: $1,200 while logged in, $829 logged out, a 44.8% difference.
The airline's elite customer service line had no explanation. His workaround: buy the ticket in the logged-out window, then switch back to the logged-in one and attach his frequent flier number.
Why it matters
Loyalty used to mean a reward. Now it can be priced and sold back to you: the same seat, more expensive the better they know you. When you cannot see what anyone else paid, every fare lands like a blow to the head, and the business is built on that blindness.
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