Airline actions are hard to fathom. The latest tiff between American Airlines and Kayak.com is mystifying. AA is pulling its directly-bookable fares leaving buyers the option of only purchasing through agencies that cost AA more in booking costs. Very strange.
AA demanded that all AA flights listed on kayak.com be linked directly to AA.com rather than allow passengers to purchase through Orbitz, Cheaptickets.com and others. Kayak.com refused and AA decided to pull their fares from the metasearch engine. Now, kayak.com will still list AA flights, but all will be routed through online travel agencies rather than having an option allowing direct booking.
Passengers will save the minimal cheapticket.com and orbitz.com booking fees by making reservations and purchasing tickets directly with AA, but that will now require an additional step and won’t be seamless.
This is the ultimate case of “if you won’t play with my toys the way I want you to, I’m taking them home.” Of course AA is getting their way, but now they have one fewer friend to play with.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
