Wednesday, December 22, 2010

How Does Orbitz, American Spat Impact Expedia?

A full fledged war between online travel agency Orbitz and American Airlines has resulted in American pulling its schedules and fares from Orbitz today, in a move that might impact Bellevue-based Expedia. American Airlines said today that it has pulled its listings from Orbitz, after a disagreement between the firms. American has been looking to drive consumers to use its own web site, and also is looking to force online travel agencies like Orbitz to use its own Direct Connect technology--instead of travel aggregators (GDAs) like Sabre--to book flights. So far, Expedia has been silent on how the move might affect the firm, however, the firm uses a similar model to Orbitz in sourcing its flight inventory from GDAs. Expedia had faced a similar pullout by American in 2007 of American's first and business class listings, but later patched up relations with American. It's unclear how the move by American with Orbitz might affect Expedia.