A few industry experts are suggesting that the Internet ticketing problem experienced by United Airlines on Tuesday may be tied to a problem with the carrier’s computers–rather than the Airline Tariff Publishing Co..
Airline Tariff Publishing of Herndon, Va., was created in the 1960s to independently handle the transmission of fare information to travel agents and reservations systems.
The company now also transmits the data to a variety of booking sites, including that of United.com., because of federal regulations.
“We got the information [on United fares] correctly from ATPCO into our system,” said a techie who helps run a competing Internet booking engine.
United officials have said the error was caused by the publishing company.
It is the third time in a little more than a year that United has inadvertently allowed customers to buy heavily discounted tickets. On Tuesday, nearly 1,000 round-trip tickets were sold for $5, plus various government taxes, during about 51 minutes over the lunch hour, said Rono Dutta, United’s president.
ATA sponsoring Indy driver: American Trans Air, the largest airline operating at Midway Airport, apparently has decided that it’s a good idea to also promote ground transportation.
ATA announced this week that it has signed to be a sponsor of Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher, who last Saturday won a starting position in the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend.
Fisher, 21, became the fastest female ever entered in the Indy 500, at 229.439 miles per hour–good enough for the ninth starting spot.
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ATA, which is expanding service rapidly throughout the Midwest, earlier in the week announced that it will launch commuter airline service to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Lexington, Ky., starting in August.
Since January, ATA has launched new service to four other U.S. destinations, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Dueling alliances: Star Alliance, the United/Lufthansa Airlines-led group of 14 cooperating airlines, turned 5 this week.
“There were a lot of people at that time who were skeptical about what this alliance could do,” said Jaan Albrecht, Star Alliance chief executive, in a conference call from Frankfurt, Germany. “We’re playing an important part of the globalization process.”
Star Alliance carriers fly to 700 destinations worldwide. The next largest alliance, the American Airlines-led OneWorld Alliance, flies to 572 destinations.
Star Alliance carriers account for 24.5 percent of the traffic worldwide, while OneWorld carriers account for about 17 percent.
The SkyTeam Alliance members, which are led by Delta Air Lines and Air France, have about 14 percent of the traffic.
American teams with Orbitz: American Airlines announced this week that its redesigned Web site is using a new booking engine from Chicago-based Orbitz, an online travel site.
It’s a dramatic improvement.
Unlike the old site, which often was slow or unavailable, the new site welcomes users by name if they are members of American’s AAdvantage frequent-flier program or have logged in before. In a major departure from other carriers, American shows its AAdvantage members the total miles they hold.
“The rapid growth in online travel purchasing presents a unique opportunity for Orbitz to provide its technology to help airline sites such as AA.com better handle and service the increasing volume of customers,” said Ellen Lee, vice president of new ventures at Orbitz.
Note to United Airlines: Call Orbitz.