Recently, different mobile phones searched for the same flight ticket at the same time and the price difference was three times, which once again caused the controversy about whether big data can be used. To this end, The Paper conducted in-depth interviews with relevant people from all aspects of the industry, including consumers, online travel platforms, airlines, agents, etc., trying to find the truth about "big data killing people".

　　A few days ago, some netizens discovered 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 Apple mobile phone was the most expensive. They questioned that it was a big data murder. Ripe.

　　The video shows that the prices of the same flight on the same day displayed by three mobile phones are 400 yuan, 481 yuan and 1330 yuan respectively. The one showing the price of 1330 yuan is an Apple mobile phone. Among them, "26% off economy class" is displayed below the price of 400 yuan, "1,330 before discount" is displayed below the price of 481 yuan, and "13% off economy class" is displayed below the price of 1,330 yuan.

　　Netizens revealed that searches for the flight from Zhengzhou to Zhuhai on February 7 showed different prices on different mobile phones and different accounts.

　　It can be seen that the price difference for the same flight searched by three mobile phones is more than 900 yuan, and the most expensive price is 3.325 times the cheapest price.

　　On January 18, Fliggy responded to The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) and stated that it was trying to contact the customer in the video to verify the situation since the previous day. It did not rule out that the agent’s price was incorrectly placed or the account in the video received a large discount. If consumers find that the price is abnormal, they can contact Fliggy as soon as possible.

　　On January 20, The Paper called Fliggy’s official customer service, who said they had conducted a comprehensive investigation on the price display of the routes involved in the video. "

However, because the link of ticket sales is relatively complicated, it is still in the process of investigation.

" Fliggy customer service said, "Because there are so many users searching at the same time period, we are now responding based on the public information presented in the report screen. Come and do a self-inspection on our price display. But what can be guaranteed is that Fliggy will never use big data to kill people. If consumers find price abnormalities when purchasing air tickets, they can contact us at any time to handle it. .”

　　On February 4, The Paper called Fliggy’s official customer service again, and the customer service responded: “

Fliggy is not familiar with big data, please rest assured. We have a special team to follow up on the case you are concerned about, and

I still need to go and talk to it. The special team will confirm the relevant information."

　　At the same time, as of press time, The Paper has not received any information from the Fliggy Public Relations Department on the latest developments in this incident.

Human error?

　　Many industry insiders mentioned that generally speaking, although there will be a slight price difference when users search for tickets for the same flight at the same time, it is "really rare" for the price difference to be around a thousand yuan.

　　A relevant person within the airline company said that the price difference may be related to the third-party platform supplier, who “may use its own technical advantages to make some so-called innovations to make profits.”

　　"Even if there is a possibility of a price difference, it is not as outrageous as a difference of 900 yuan." An insider of the airline pointed out that the airline's systems are all large systems, and they basically do not and dare not do this. It cannot be ruled out that it is caused by human error. Specifically, It also depends on the background data of each party.

　　Another person holding a similar view is an insider of an online travel platform. He told The Paper that such a huge price difference cannot be ruled out because the ticket agent ordered the wrong product. "The gross profit of a ticket is not much. It cannot be a few hundred yuan different. It may be human error." The person said, "For example, airlines provide some special discount tickets. These tickets were originally made into packaged travel products. , but it was put on the wrong shelf and turned into a separate air ticket product, and it happened to be swiped by this customer."

　　Qi Qi, a senior civil aviation expert, pointed out in an interview with The Paper that some of the tickets may be sold by agents. Qi Qi analyzed: "The platform is equivalent to a market. Some agents may be able to obtain rewards from some airlines in order to achieve sales targets. At some nodes, agents may be willing to use just a few air tickets. Sell ​​it at a price below cost.”

The discount methods are different, and most price differences are within 30 yuan.

　　The Paper searched multiple online travel platforms and found that the prices for the same flight at the same time were indeed different. Even when searching for air tickets on different platforms, the displayed prices were also different, and the price difference did not exceed 30 yuan.

　　Take the one-way air ticket from Zhengzhou to Zhuhai on January 19th searched by The Paper on a platform through two different accounts as an example. The search price difference of flight PN6243 is 15 yuan; the search price difference of flight HU7637 is 10 yuan.

　　Comparison of screenshots of the flight search page of an online travel platform. The picture on the left is an iPhone phone with an F3 level account; the picture on the right is a Huawei phone with an F1 level account.

　　Taking three accounts searching for one-way air tickets from Wuhan to Zhuhai on January 23 on another platform as an example, the search prices for flight CZ3946 (after discounts) are the same; for flight HU7829, iPhone Diamond VIP, iPhone Ordinary Member, and Huawei Platinum The search prices for VIPs are 320 yuan, 345 yuan and 345 yuan respectively.

　　Comparison of screenshots of flight search pages on online travel platforms. The left 1 is an iPhone with a diamond VIP account; the left 2 is an iPhone with an ordinary member account; the right 1 is a Huawei phone with a platinum VIP account.

　　"Any e-commerce platform will have a similar situation to some extent." Li Ke, an insider of an online travel platform, said: "Different airlines, different platforms or different agents will issue different coupons. Some of these coupons Some are visible to you, some are invisible, so when many coupons are superimposed, the final calculated price will be different.

　　A number of online travel platform and airline insiders told The Paper that due to the superposition of various factors such as membership systems, merchant activities, newcomer discounts and other factors, the prices of each platform will indeed differ, but the price difference is usually within 30 yuan.

　　The Paper found in interviews that all platforms stated that they did not deliberately target big data experts, and that all pricing complied with government regulations. However, each platform was unable to explain its specific mechanism, which ultimately reflected in On the client side, it creates an effect similar to "killing familiarity".

　　The Paper reporter Tang Yingying and Shao Bingyan