JetBlue was accused in a lawsuit of collecting customers’ personal data without their consent and using it to set ticket prices.
Andrew Phillips, who lives in New York, said in the complaint that he was “completely unaware that he was being tracked for the purpose of price-fixing” when he booked a ticket in December on the Queens-based budget airline.
This alleged strategy allows JetBlue to offer different rates to different customers based on various factors such as their Internet history and other demographic information, according to the complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, better known as Brooklyn federal court.
“This allows Defendant to manipulate prices in real time in order to make as much money as possible on airline ticket prices, which are priced differently to consumers based on their private information, which they have not consented to disclose for this purpose,” the complaint states.
Phillips, in the complaint, also said he was not informed by JetBlue that his private information was being monitored or sold to third parties.
And it is seeking to expand its class-action lawsuit and seek unspecified damages from JetBlue for allegedly violating New York’s consumer protection laws and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a federal anti-wiretapping law.
“Consumers should not have to have their privacy rights violated to participate in Defendant’s digital rat race for airline tickets, which should cost the same for every passenger seated the same way,” the lawsuit says.
JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
But in a statement released earlier at CBS NewsJetBlue has denied using customers’ personal data to set ticket prices.
“JetBlue does not use personal information or web browsing history to set individual fares,” the carrier said in the statement. “Fares are determined by demand and seat availability, and all customers have access to the same fares on jetblue.com and our mobile app.”
That’s not true, Phillips said in the lawsuit. And he offered as evidence that JetBlue admitted to using “data collected by cookies” during an exchange on X between a customer using the nickname “Nugg”.
“I love flying @JetBlue but a $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy,” the user wrote in an April 18 post on X. “I’m just trying to attend a funeral.”
“Try clearing your cache and cookies or booking with a private browsing window,” the airline responded. “We are sorry for your loss.”
JetBlue eventually deleted that response, according to the suit.
And in its statement, the airline insisted that “its social media response was simply an error by an individual customer service crew member.”
“The actions suggested by the crew member would not have changed the airfares available for purchase,” he said.
