Pricing Gets Personal At JetBlue A JetBlue customer posted on X: “A $230 increase on a ticket after one day is crazy. I’m just trying to make it to a funeral.” The airline replied, suggesting trying “clearing your cache and cookies or booking with an incognito window. We’re sorry for your loss.” The response went viral, igniting accusations of “ surveillance pricing .” Now JetBlue faces a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging it used customer data to influence fares. The Temptation Of Consumer Surplus At the heart of this type of pricing is something economists call consumer surplus . Imagine we each pay $200 to attend a tennis match at Wimbledon together. I’m a tennis fanatic and would have gladly paid $500; you were dragged along but figured the strawberries-and-cream Instagrammable moments would be worth $250 to you. My consumer surplus is $500 – $200 = $300. Yours, using similar math, is $50.…