Recently Orbitz took American Airlines off its listings after the two companies could not agree a contract on Orbitz offering American Airline fares, today we have learned that Expedia have now waded into the issue by not displaying American Airline fares in line with others by ranking lowest to highest fares.Expedia are not happy with American Airlines after the the recent contract disputes with Orbitz and has now moved all American Airline results to the right side of the Expedia site, this is usually where higher priced flight results are found.
The move by Expedia and Orbitz comes as American Airlines is pushing online travel sites to use its Direct Connect Technology, a system that allows the consumer to book travel directly through them. This means that American Airlines is lowering its distribution costs and trying to create a more closer relationship with its customer base, something online travel sites disagree with as they see it as anti-consumer.
An announcement on the recent move by Expedia said: "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,"
"American Airlines' direct-connect model is of questionable, if any, benefit to travelers, costly to build and maintain and would compromise travel agents' ability to provide travelers with the best selection,"
Interestingly it seems that Expedia is not the only online travel site to see the issues faced with American Airlines as the huge online travel site Travelocity has also waded into the argument by saying: "American's effort to push agencies to an inadequate direct-connect option is bad for consumers, corporations and agencies,"
Interestingly American Airlines is not the only airline looking to bring in a direct booking system as Southwest Airlines already does so and Delta Air Lines have advised they are looking to do the same.
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