The world’s largest online travel agency, Expedia, has removed American Airlines inventory from their website. This action comes after American to push both Expedia and Orbitz into using their proprietary booking system rather than one of the standard industry-wide computer solutions.
American Airlines (AA) has been attempting to force travel agents into using their “direct-connect” booking systems that they claim will allow AA to provide better customer service.
Ironically, after more than 40 years of working with Global Distribution Systems (GDS) like Sabre, and decade after starting Orbitz, AA wants to take another path and they expect the entire travel industry to uproot their legacy booking systems and shift to a less-robust product.
The organizations selling billions of dollars of their airline tickets are not agreeing to AA’s change of direction or AA’s new booking mantra. For organizations that make the bulk of their income from integrating air, hotel, rental car and other travel products, the AA solution is simply not workable without major IT changes.
Neither Orbitz nor Expedia agreed to the American Airlines pressure. AA pulled their tickets from Orbitz and Expedia removed AA tickets from their system after they failed to reach agreement with AA this last week.
This is almost a $2 billion top-line hit for American Airlines. Perhaps they will be able to make up this loss with savings from their new direct connect system or perhaps they will have more bookings come directly to them rather than through Expedia and Orbitz, but the outcome is definitely uncertain.
The Consumer Travel Alliance has noted that this American Airlines effort to create a new pipeline and eliminate the ability to easily compare AA’s prices with other airlines is anti-consumer at its core. Combined with AA’s refusal to disclose ancillary fees to consumers who book travel through travel agents, this new action reveals AA as an organization that strives to hide its true prices from its passengers.
In the meantime, don’t bother checking on Expedia or on Obitz for American Airline tickets to anywhere. You won’t find them. Passengers who have already purchased AA tickets on Expedia or Orbitz, will have to call AA for any changes or support.
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.
