American Airlines and US Airways flights are offered at the lowest available fares on each airline s

American Airlines has pulled fares from Orbitz (again) and will also pull US Airways' fares starting on September 01, 2015. Though AA is a partial owner of Orbitz, the carrier and the online travel airline tickets travel agency have been unable to agree on a fee arrangement for selling AA/US flights. History makes me hopeful this blockage airline tickets travel is temporary in nature, but is nevertheless detrimental to consumers. Which side is to blame for this latest squabble?
American airline tickets travel Airlines fares are no longer airline tickets travel available through consumer websites powered by Orbitz, including orbitz.com and cheaptickets.com. We also anticipate removing US Airways fares from Orbitz on September 1, 2014. You can continue to compare and purchase American Airlines and US Airways flights or fares through other online and brick and mortar travel agencies. Corporate clients that use Orbitz for Business to book travel are not affected by this change.
Tickets already purchased through Orbitz websites airline tickets travel remain valid for travel, but changes to reservations must be made through each airline s reservations department. If changes to travel are needed, please contact the reservations center for the carrier operating the flight...
American Airlines and US Airways flights are offered at the lowest available fares on each airline s website at aa.com and usairways.com and you will pay no online booking fees. Only on these sites will you find convenient booking, online check-in, flight status notifications, the ability to earn AAdvantage miles or Dividend Miles on flights, hotels, cars and more providing an all-in-one experience from booking to takeoff.
The conventional travel agency has been driven to near extinction over the last 15 years as the online revolution as pushed nearly all consumers to purchase airline tickets themselves airline tickets travel online. Mega online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz were formed to allow consumers to search prices across multiple airlines between two city pairs and offer bundled hotel, car, and accommodations purchases along with airfare.
As technology has become more advanced, however, airlines (with Southwest and AA leading the charge) have been more reluctant to sell tickets through online travel agencies because of the increasing ability to 1.) custom tailor airfare search results based on the person searching and 2.) sell bundled packages that are either impossible or more much difficult to offer on a site like Orbitz.
For example, with AA you can pay for premium seating, priority boarding, baggage, airline tickets travel and extra miles all at the point of purchase on aa.com - that additional ancillary revenue brings in big bucks each year and the airline doesn't have to pay out anything, even a token amount, to a third party site for selling the ticket.
airline tickets travel Thus, it comes as no surprise that AA is playing hardball with Orbitz because each day it makes less financial sense to market through Orbitz when AA.com has the possibility to generate much more revenue.
But for the consumer, this news is bad. Certainly, Kayak, Expedia, and Travelocity (and even Orbitz for Business) still offer AA and US Airways flights, but Orbitz is the easiest of the online airline tickets travel travel agencies to use, in my opinion, and best for searching multi-segment itineraries and tickets that include more than one operating carrier.
Further, while AA allows a complimentary one-day hold on revenue tickets, it does not have a free 24hr cancellation period after booking. With Orbitz, airline tickets travel you have at least 24 hours to cancel (in some cases more) and that offers some a more preferential security when booking a non-refundable ticket.
We don't know. Anti-climatic I know, but neither side has offered specifics and it is not clear whether the two sides are close to agreement or far from consensus. Last time it was a court order that mandated the two sides play nice and this matter may work itself to court again.
But the effects of the increasing attractiveness of selling airfare only through channels you have full control over will continue to rear its head. Technology will eventually catch up to the online travel agencies as well, but in the meantime note that the bickering between Orbitz and American is merely a symptom of the new era in the sale of airfare in which shopping for a deal becomes harder airline tickets travel and in which carriers, flush with publicity through social media and web advertising, no longer need any assistance in selling tickets.
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It seems like the future will be more like an expanded version of Hipmunk. Since users book through the carrier's airline tickets travel website they would have a much harder time making any claim about pulling their data other than, "We want to make it harder for you to compare prices."
You've alluded to this, but the other lynchpin here is AA's attempt to force the OTAs to use AA's "Direct Connect" system whereby AA can sell both fares and ancillaries on the OTA and bypass the middleman, the GDS. I don't necessarily airline tickets travel see blame on either side, as much as both sides fighting tooth and nail to protect their business interests. AA wants Direct Connect because it is cheaper for them, provides enhanced ancillary upsell opportunities, and cuts out the fees paid to the GDSes. The GDSes, understandably, don't want to give up that revenue stream. Eventually, I think a move to Direct Connect systems across all airlines is inevitable, and the GDSes will either airline tickets travel adapt by working out some kind of deal to keep a smaller cut of the pie, or come up with a better airline tickets travel mousetrap that is superior to Direct Connect. In the meantime, until everything shakes itself out, we're likely to see more spats like this, which stinks for consumers.