Recently, different mobile phones searched for the same flight at the same time, and the fare difference was 3 times, so that the controversy over whether big data would kill ripeness has once again attracted attention. To this end, The Paper conducted in-depth interviews with relevant people in all aspects of the industry, including consumers, online travel platforms, airlines, and agents, in an attempt to find the truth about "big data kills ripeness".
A few days ago, some netizens found that when booking air tickets on the Fliggy platform, they found that three mobile phones displayed three prices on the same day, at the same time, and on the same flight (Zhengzhou to Zhuhai), and the price of the Apple mobile phone was the most expensive.
The video shows that the prices of the same flight on the same day shown by the three mobile phones are 400 yuan, 481 yuan and 1330 yuan respectively, and the price of 1330 yuan is displayed by the Apple mobile phone. Among them, the price of 400 yuan shows "2.6% off economy class", the price of 481 yuan shows "1330 before discount", and the price of 1330 yuan shows "8.7% off economy class".
Netizens broke the news that on the flight from Zhengzhou to Zhuhai on February 7, different mobile phones and different accounts searched for the flight and showed different prices.
It can be seen that the difference in the price of the same flight searched by 3 mobile phones reaches more than 900 yuan, and the most expensive price is 3.325 times the cheapest price.
On January 18, Fliggy responded to The Paper that it was trying to contact the customer in the video to verify the situation since the day before, and did not rule out that the agent had made a mistake in placing the price or the account in the video had received a large amount of coupons, and if the consumer found that the price was abnormal, he could contact Fliggy for the first time.
On January 20, The Paper called Fliggy's official customer service, and the customer service said that it had done a comprehensive investigation on the display of the price of the route involved in the video. "However, due to the complexity of the ticket sales chain, it is still in the process of investigation. Fliggy's customer service said, "Because there are so many users searching for it in the same time period, we are now doing a self-check based on the public information presented in the report screen to do a self-check on the display of our prices." However, it can be guaranteed that Fliggy will never use big data to kill the ripe, and if consumers find that the price is abnormal when purchasing a ticket, they can also contact us at any time to deal with it. ”
On February 4, The Paper called Fliggy's official customer service again, and the customer service responded: "Fliggy will not kill big data, please rest assured." We have a special team following up on the case you are concerned about, and I still need to confirm the relevant information with the special team. ”
At the same time, as of press time, The Paper did not receive any information from Fliggy's public relations department on the latest developments in this incident.
Human negligence?
A number of industry insiders mentioned that generally speaking, although there will be a slight difference in the price of a ticket for the same flight at the same time, the difference is about 1,000 yuan.
Some airline insiders said that the price difference may be related to the supplier of the third-party platform, "may use its own technical advantages to do some so-called innovation to make profits." ”
"Even if there is a possibility of price difference, it is not as outrageous as 900 yuan. The airline insider pointed out that the airline's system is a large system, and basically will not and dare not do this, which cannot be ruled out to be caused by human error, and it depends on the background data of all parties.
Someone from an online travel platform told The Paper that such a huge price difference could not be ruled out as being caused by the wrong product on the air ticket agent. "The gross profit of a ticket is not much, it is impossible to be a few hundred yuan, and it may be human fault. The person said, "For example, airlines provide some special tickets, which were originally made into packaged travel products, but they were put on the wrong shelves and became a separate ticket product, and they happened to be swiped by this customer." ”
Qi Qi, a senior civil aviation expert, pointed out in an interview with The Paper that it may be part of the ticket source sold by the agent. Qiqi analyzed: "The platform is equivalent to a market, some agents may be able to get some airline rewards in order to achieve sales targets, and at some nodes, agents are just a few tickets away, they may be willing to sell at a price below cost." ”
The preferential methods are different,
Most of the price difference is within 30 yuan
The surging news searched multiple online travel platforms and found that the price of the same flight at the same time is indeed different, and even when searching for air tickets on different platforms, the displayed price is also different, and the price difference does not exceed 30 yuan.
For example, the search price of flight PN6243 is 15 yuan, and the search price of flight HU7637 is 10 yuan.
Comparison of screenshots of the air ticket search page of an online travel platform. The picture on the left shows an iPhone with an F3 account, and the picture on the right shows a Huawei phone with an F1 account.
For example, if three accounts search for a one-way ticket from Wuhan to Zhuhai on January 23 on another platform, the search price (after discount) for flight CZ3946 is the same, and the search prices for flight HU7829 are 320 yuan, 345 yuan and 345 yuan respectively.
Comparison of screenshots of the air ticket search page of the online travel platform. Left 1 is an iPhone, Diamond VIP account, Left 2 is an iPhone, Ordinary Member account, and Right 1 is a Huawei phone, Platinum VIP account.
"There will be a similar situation more or less on any e-commerce platform. Li Ke, an insider of an online travel platform, said: "Different airlines, different platforms or different agents will issue different coupons, some of which are visible to you, and some are invisible, so when many coupons are superimposed, the final calculation will be different."
A number of online travel platforms and airline insiders told The Paper that due to the superposition of various factors such as membership systems, merchant activities, and newcomer discounts, the prices of each platform will indeed vary, but the difference is usually within 30 yuan.
In the interview, The Paper found that all the platforms said that they did not deliberately kill the ripeness of big data, and all the pricing complied with government regulatory regulations, but each platform could not say what its specific mechanism was, which made it finally reflected on the user side, which caused a similar effect of "killing ripeness".
据澎湃新闻 责编:DD001