Travelers could be the losers as Expedia, Orbitz battle American Airlines

Add Expedia to the list of online travel websites in a battle with American Airlines — the sort of tiff that could eventually affect the way travelers buy airline tickets.

In what appears to a pre-emptive strike against American’s decision last week to pull its flights from the Orbitz travel website, Expedia
said Thursday that American flights are no longer immediately visible
on its website for comparing trips offered by various airlines.

A search for flights between Seattle and Chicago for dates in January, for instance, brought up flight times and low fares ranging from $278-$320 on Alaska Airlines, United, Frontier, US Airways and Delta.

Information for American’s $278
nonstop came up only after clicking on “Show more airlines.” Passengers
then have to click through outbound and return flight times before
seeing American’s ticket prices.

“This has been done in light of both American Airlines’ recent decision to prevent Orbitz from selling its inventory and a possible disruption in Expedia’s ability to sell American Airlines tickets when our contract with American Airlines expires,” the company said in a statement released through its public relations agency.

Expedia spokesman Adam Anderson declined further clarification on Expedia’s rationale.

“We’re disappointed that Expedia is making American Airlines flights and fares more difficult to find,” Ryan Mikolasik,
a spokesman for American, told Bloomberg News. “This discriminatory
action is unwarranted, especially considering that American has taken
no action against and continues to operate in good faith with Expedia.”

The dispute is the latest sign of strain between
airlines and the companies that sell airline tickets, including online
sellers such as Orbitz and Expedia that collect commissions from the airlines for booking tickets.

American, based in Fort Worth, Texas, pulled its flights from Orbitz on Tuesday after an Illinois state court in Chicago lifted a temporary restraining order that prevented the airline from doing so. Orbitz is partly owned by Travelport LP, which distributes airline fare data.

American has developed a system called Direct
Connect that provides fare pricing and options directly to larger
online travel agencies. The carrier also is trying to drive more
bookings through its own website at AA.com.

If other airlines follow the trend (Southwest,
for instance, makes its fares available only on its own website),
consumers will find it harder to comparison-shop for fares, at least on
commercial sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity that also sell
tickets.

Consumers can still find American flights on search engines such as www.kayak.com and www.bing.com that show fares offered on most airline websites and third-party ticket sellers, with links to those sites for booking

“American Airlines has shown it only intends to do business with travel agencies through a new model that is anti-consumer and anti-choice,” Expedia said in its statement. “We cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers.”

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