Is American severing ties with Kayak.com?
Posted by
George on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 to
Airline Industry News
That's the rumor, anyway. For quite a while, AA has been enticing travelers to buy tickets only on its own site, aa.com, with its DealFinder widget, which offers 10 to 30% off on various routes with the use of promo codes.
According to this blog post, cash-crunched American no longer wants to pay double booking fees to both Kayak and Orbitz (fares found on American via Kayak are sent not to aa.com but to Orbitz.com for booking).
Southwest, of course, already does very nicely by not listing on Kayak or any other site. So perhaps American is thinking, hey, why can't we go it alone too?
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By Kellie Pelletier on
Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 1:48 PM
This is actually not true. Kayak.com displays prices and availability for AA schedules directly from AA.com and from our OTA partners. Users have a choice of where to book, directly from AA.com or from an OTA.
At Kayak.com, we are dedicated to providing a comprehensive and objective display to our users. We’re unwilling to amend this pro-consumer philosophy that is the core of our business by suppressing results based on a partner’s request. We welcome American Airlines to rejoin Kayak.com’s objective results at any time.
By Kate on
Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 7:54 PM
In this current market, airlines are watching every penny and that will likely mean the end of commissions paid to internet booking engines. I've been a travel agent for over 20 years so I know how hard it will be for the booking sites to lose their commission, however, it may come to that in order for carriers to save millions in a time when they are losing millions and billions. A few airlines' 2nd qtr losses were in the billions, so don't be shocked to see commissions start to disappear.
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