The Future of Pricing: How Airline Ticket Pricing Has Inspired a Revolution [Hardcover]

E. Andrew Boyd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0230600190 | ISBN-13: 978-0230600195 | Edition: 1st

A story about science, technology, and people, The Future of Pricing provides an inside look at how airlines price tickets and how practices developed in the airline industry are now revolutionizing the world of pricing. Written for business professionals and students wanting to better understand the rapid growth of scientific pricing, the author draws upon his years of experience as Chief Scientist for a pricing software firm that has implemented over 250 pricing solutions with over 100 airlines and Fortune 500 companies. Using first-hand accounts, interviews, anecdotes, and examples, the book explores how leading companies have dealt with obstacles ranging from stubborn sales agents to overly zealous scientists to emerge as powerful, rational pricing organizations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The science of pricing and revenue management is revolutionizing the way companies approach profitable growth. In this delightful book, Andy Boyd gives us a very unique and very personal perspective of this business phenomenon. It is a must read for those interested in the hands-on views of a true pioneer in an important discipline."
 --Robert G. Cross, Chairman, Revenue Analytics and author of Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination

 

"Dr. Boyd has intertwined the history of an industry with the history of the world. Using examples from Copernicus, Jesus Christ, and Lenin, he weaves anecdotes of the airline industry, technology, technology companies, and the history of pricing and revenue management together into an easy-to-read story and even provides some useful poker tips along the way. While the book is centered on the airline industry, examples and concepts make it applicable to every industry. As at home in the classroom as in the living room, this book is a must read for anyone who has ever thought about pricing."

--Laura Preslan, Industry Solutions Director, Microsoft

About the Author

Andy Boyd has served as Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President of Science and Research at PROS (Pricing and Revenue Optimization Solutions) since 1999. He joined PROS in 1997 as Vice President following almost ten years as a university professor. Together with his international team of advanced degree recipients in Economics, Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, and Statistics, he has worked with senior executives at numerous leading companies on their pricing problems.
 
Andy is founding president of the INFORMS Section on Revenue Management and Pricing. He has over 25 scholarly publications to his credit along with many popular articles on technical topics. His research has been funded with grants from agencies including the National Science Foundation and the Federal Aviation Administration.
 
Andy received his A.B. with Honors from Oberlin College with majors in Mathematics and Economics in 1981, and his Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230600190
• ISBN-13: 978-0230600195
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,310,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Easily read - easily forgotten, March 3, 2008

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This review is from: The Future of Pricing: How Airline Ticket Pricing Has Inspired a Revolution (Hardcover)

The Future of Pricing is a short book which presents some of the scientific techniques that airlines use to price tickets and discusses how these techniques may become common to other industries. The style is engaging and the examples are applied. The book hooked me.

However I found the content lacking. The author comments in the preface that he didn't want to write a 'guru book' nor a personal memoir. It's a pity because either style would have been better than the current book. The book does not contain math. This limits its appeal to people like me who want more formality and a more thorough understanding of the science. However, the book presents subjects that are complex enough that I doubt a naive reader would enjoy it. In a word, it's neither here nor there, hitting an unfortunate middle ground.

If you are looking for a short and entertaining read about pricing, this is a great book. If you are looking for a more 'meaty' book, you may be disappointed.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great look at how airlines use math and science to set fares, June 30, 2008

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Future of Pricing: How Airline Ticket Pricing Has Inspired a Revolution (Hardcover)

Sometimes the most obvious business practices are the most complicated - and the most interesting. This is the case with airline pricing, so E. Andrew Boyd has chosen a great topic. As an expert in the esoteric field of operations research, he has done business readers a great service by presenting the history, evolution, theory and practice of airline pricing, and by tracking how it revolutionized pricing in many other industries. Boyd weaves his personal stories and insights about mathematics, gambling and airline history into a very readable, high-level business book. While this is a seemingly esoteric topic, getAbstract highly recommends his book to those in the transportation, travel, tourism and restaurant businesses. It will be especially valuable to intrepid executives in other industries who want to push the frontiers of pricing based on the latest science about operations.