Thursday, December 30, 2010

American Says Ticket Sales Not Affected By Orbitz, Expedia Tiff

American Airlines says its dispute over use of travel distribution and listing systems by Orbitz and Expedia hasn't affected its ticket sales, claiming last night that its year-over-year ticket sales are up, despite not being listed on Orbitz.com, and a lower position on Bellevue-based Expedia's online travel site. American had pulled its listings on Orbitz on December 21st, over the use of third party airline fare systems rather than American's own direct ticket listing systems, with Expedia supporting Orbitz by downgrading American's listings to lower in search results on December 23rd. American is battling the two firms--and others--who use third party travel aggregators like Sabre to book flights on American. The airline instead wants those sites to instead use its own Direct Connect technology to book flights. American claims that users have shifted to sites like Priceline.com, Kayak.com, and its own web site to purchase tickets on the airline.