[Mifnet 🛰 74216] Re: Mifnet response to post

[Bob Robeson via Mifnet]

 
theaircurrent.com/product-announcements/the-air-current-expands-with-new-analysis-new-director/

Bob Robeson
    On Friday, September 19, 2025 at 10:09:14 PM EDT, Jack Keady via Mifnet 
<mifnet@lists.mifnet.com> wrote:   

 keady - should Courrtney wish, her post certainly indicates she would be a 
welcome addition to the Mifnet.
Often though many of us just forward the subject material with our own 
viewpoint and await further discussion. Often we want to get the issue before 
mifnetters and not wait for further pros and cons from the writer. Unfair 
perhaps but it's not as though we are sending a critique into Aviation Week or 
whatever.
It would be nice if the critic stepped forward (and I'm praying it wasn't me) 
and acknowledged Courtneys rebuttals but in a sense we could move on.
Unrelated but I'm reminded of the adage "say anything you want about me but 
just spell my name right"
On Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 5:50 PM Courtney Miller via Mifnet 
<mifnet@lists.mifnet.com> wrote:

All,
Here's an unusual post. This email came to me by my LinkedIn account. I might 
have missed it amongst other LinkedIn traffic. 
It's self-explanatory and worth reading. 
The author asks that I share it as a response to a recent Mifnet thread. I hope 
that everyone knows that anyone disagreeing with a post is welcome to offer a 
response. Mifnet is shared more widely than we may assume.
DW



Hi David,
I was sent a note highlighting a message posted to Mifnetattacking some work I 
recently published. Eventually, you'll angersomeone in this business, but 
that's life.
While I am not a member of Mifnet, I wanted to reach out toyou to offer a 
proper response to ensure the discussion is notone-sided.  The response is 
below.  The post in questionwas referencing Delta and Fetcher's AI model.
I don't know who posted the critique, and I respect thediscretion of Mifnet.  
Frankly, I don't want to know.  Ionly ask as a professional courtesy that you 
post my response todefend my integrity, which was called intoquestion.  
Many thanks for your help and work toward ensuring transparentdiscussion and 
banter.  Especially these days.
Best regards,Courtney

RESPONSE=======================
What a strange and oddly angrycritique.  I'm disappointed I haven't received 
any of theangry emails to discuss before reading it on a forum, but such isthe 
state of banter and discourse today.  
It was expected, though:  I evenwrote about it in the section that appears to 
have beenskipped:  "That said, this paper isn’t writtenspecifically for you. As 
you feel the urge to “well, actually,”consider that explaining the concepts of 
recurring neural networksand transformers to a population that interacts with 
all AI solelythrough a browser chat window requires somereduction."  
Doesn't take machine learning to predictthat one.  :)
Since we're in aviation and we doeverything in acronyms, I think the most 
elegant response isRTFA.  The responses to the critique were already offered 
inthe original paper.

1. Delta’s2024 passenger revenue was $52 billion. Miller absurdly claims 
thatthe Delta/Fletcherr “AI pricing” approach could increase revenue by10% 
(“and could be higher than 10%”)...
>From the paper:  "TheAI company claims revenue improvements of 10% due to 
>pricingoptimization from the model. We do not know if Delta is seeing 
>theclaimed 10% in their test cases, but we do know the airline isvery, very 
>satisfied with the results."

2. Miller describes theDelta/Fletcherr “AI pricing” approach as “a revolution 
in ticketpricing” but never defines (much less explains) any 
algorithmicbreakthrough versus traditional airline revenuemanagement... 
>From the paper:  "This isn’trevolutionary, in and of itself. As we will see, 
>these types ofmodels have been used in airline revenue management departments 
>fordecades. What is new is the integration of these models directlyinto the 
>pricing system."

3.  ... He completely ignores the problemthat “AI” tools don’t make decisions 
and can’t support decisionsthat aren’t following patterns thoroughly documented 
in thetraining data.
>From the paper:  "While this isa grossly oversimplified explanation of what 
>Fetcherr’s model iscapable of achieving, it’s essential to note that it does 
>notsurpass the theoretical capabilities of the old-schoolpaper-and-pencil 
>regression model."  

4. Afterinitially pounding the pricing revolution drum, Miller begins 
tobacktrack.
Just as a point of clarity on thisone:  You can't backtrack within the same 
document. That's not backtracking, that's called adding context andnuance.  
Anyone who knows me knows how religiously I takecontext and nuance in analysis. 
 I accept the compliment,despite it being delivered through a logicalfallacy.  
The remainder of the critique point issimply asking for confidential 
information from airlines that Icertainly won't reveal. The only thing I will 
say onthe matter is that many airlines have expressed frustration atnot having 
data available and normalized, including all airlinesmentioned in this report.  
That's not made up, as the postersuggests.  It's a very real challenge 
expressed by the mostsophisticated airlines, and it's current.

5. ...Miller makes insincere efforts to discredit critics of 
extremepersonalized pricing, claiming without citations that they saidDelta was 
planning to collect information about personal checkingaccounts.
Certainly not insincere:  
https://www.wrdw.com/2025/07/23/delta-expand-its-ai-ticket-pricing-alarm-some/. 
 
I think this point is critically anddangerously overlooked by the internet 
poster.  Although thecomments from the public are without any basis, they were 
stillmade.  This is critical in appreciating the context from whichthe intended 
reader is likely approaching this paper, and howdifferent it is from that of 
the poster.  These were preciselythe questions I was receiving from CEOs of 
aviation and investmentcompanies, leading to the writing of the paper.  It is a 
sillynotion, AND people believe it.  I'm not certain of the originsof the 
poster, but it may be a simple matter of not appreciatingthe proliferation of 
misinformation in the United States.  Youcan't just wish it away, and 
addressing it certainly isn't being"insincere."
I'm also not certain where theposter read that there was any suggestion that 
Delta was everplanning to use any personal data.  In fact, it was 
madeexplicitly clear that Delta was never planning to do any ofthis.  This was 
a key tenet of the paper.
>From the paper:  "This is nothow AI models work and is certainly not how Delta 
>and Fetcherr’smodel works"



I don't know, like I said, it was a verystrange note to read on a Friday 
morning.  I'm not normally inthe business of responding to disengenuous forum 
posts, butI'm also not in the business of allowing suchdisengenuous credibility 
attacks to gounanswered.  
I'd classify this as "missing the forestfor the trees."  I explicitly set the 
context for whothis paper was written for and that it shouldn't be used by 
revenuemanagement professionals to say "well, actually" to further theirown 
careers.  And yet...
But, I will express my disappointment inthe disingenuous nature in which the 
paper was clearlyread.  It appears to have been taken personally,somehow.  
Perhaps someone forwarded the paper to the posterwith a nasty note?  Was it 
sent to them, suggesting it was anacademic paper written for researchers and 
not non-technicalaviation leaders?  There must be some angry conversation 
orcontext beyond this paper from which the poster isresponding.  It happens.  I 
getit.  
There are a few things I would have doneto improve this paper, but funnily 
enough, the poster didn'tmention any of them.  I reserve those for the many 
discussionsI have with the intended audience. 
Chances are, this poster knows more thanI do about revenue management and 
pricing.  Cool.  I'mnot positioning myself as an expert.  I don't compete with 
RMprofessionals.  There is no advertisement, because I don'tadvise airlines on 
pricing strategies for money.  It'sliterally a free paper put out into the 
public discourse.  Thepaper is written from the perspective of an 
inquisitiveteacher and provider of context to those asking questions and 
theaviation public as a whole.  Those who do know me knowintegrity and the 
desire for "oh wow, I never thought of that"drives my work - never "well, 
actually."  The forum post,unfortunately, entirely disregarded this context.
I do include my email on every analysisor presentation published.  I received 
nothing.  Iget things wrong, and banter and discussion are welcomed - 
evensolicited.  I make it a point to present my findings in anon-combative 
manner, with the intention of finding answers ratherthan suggesting mine are 
the only ones that should beconsidered.   I don't expect all responses to match 
thesame tone, but I do expect the responses to include me,particularly if there 
are any explicit attacks on mycredibility.  Integrity is NOT something Itake 
lightly.
And yet, through all of the responses topoints made from well outside the 
context of the paper, thecritique betrayed a key oversight that I had expected 
and hoped tocatch early:  
"If you’re in data science or airlinerevenue management, none of this will be 
new to you.  However,you’ll find important context in this paper for how the 
rest of theindustry thinks.  This is a bridge between the neural networksin 
which you’ve been living the past few decades and the neurons ofthe millions of 
human beings who work or travel in the commercialairline industry.
AI means the same thing to most people: ChatGPT.  We believe understanding this 
misunderstandingis incredibly valuable for present and future datascientists.
That said, this paper isn’t written specifically for you.  Asyou feel the urge 
to “well, actually,” consider that explaining theconcepts of recurring neural 
networks and transformers to apopulation that interacts with all AI solely 
through a browser chatwindow requires some reduction.  

Then consider that thesesame people are the ones with all the money."

It is very easy to descend into our ownworld of working with detailed models 
and become disconnected fromthe rest of the world.  Regardless of the models, 
it still allcomes down to human behavior - weird, irrationalhuman behavior.  
For the intended audience, the paperdelivered a conclusion.
However, for the long-time professionalswho think they've seen it all and have 
nothing to learn from howthe rest of the world approaches learning a complex 
topic, aseparate conclusion was explicitly offered:  Understandingthis 
irrationality IS the point.
That point was missed.

Next time, just email me.  Emailaddress is always in the document.

Courtney
Visual Approach
214-601-3628

--


Visual Approach
214-601-3628
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