The hot topic in travel circles today is yesterday’s breakup between Orbitz and American Airlines. The reverberations are still being felt, including here at the Tribune Company, which contracts with Orbitz and, in an email this afternoon, encouraged employees to book business travel though United Airlines for the time being.
Experts have been getting in touch to share their takes, and here are three — all of which conclude the schism will not benefit consumers:
George Hobica, founder and editor of airfarewatchdog.com:
“Airlines cut out bricks and mortar travel agents long ago, refusing to pay a commission; what’s taken them so long with online travel agencies and meta-search? What does American really want? Lower fees? To have only aa.com as a booking option when AA fares are listed? Why are they being so hard (on) Orbitz and not on other (websites)? …
Southwest … (and) Allegiant Airlines also sells on their own sites only. Are other airlines looking over Southwest’s shoulder and wondering why they can’t do the same thing? …
Bottom line, this will make airfare shopping harder … just like in the old days when you called up each airline in turn to find the lowest fare. This is not a good thing for consumers, especially if it spreads to other airlines and third party sites.”
Mike McCormick, executive director and chief operating officer of the National Business Travel Association (nbta.org):
“American Airlines’ decision will lead to higher prices and confusion for corporations, business travelers and consumers alike. Travelers wanting to fly American will now need to bounce back and forth across multiple websites to book a trip. American’s decision does nothing to help business travelers or their employers — it adds an unnecessary obstacle to smooth business travel booking and will lead to higher costs in the end. NBTA believes it is critical to maintain a fair, transparent and competitive buying environment for business travel, and American’s decision is in direct opposition to this goal.”
Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com:
“In the immediate sense, I don’t think other airlines will follow. Though if American’s model proves to be successful, we might see other airlines using similar distribution systems and methods down the road.
The move does make things a bit more difficult for consumers in terms of comparison shopping since they will have to remember to search American separately if using Orbitz. However, my advice would be to use a meta search engine like Bing Travel or Kayak that searches multiple sites (including Orbitz and American) at the same time.”
Getty Images file photo
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