American Airlines Drops Orbitz

Transcript by (www.newsy.com) BY ADNAN S. KHAN You’re watching multisource business video news analysis from Newsy. Orbitz will probably have to hire William Shatner to negotiate out of its latest ordeal. American Airlines has pulled its ticketing options and pricing from online ticket retailer Orbitz. Bloomberg says the airline wants more control over its own ticket prices. "American Airlines has stopped listing flights and selling tickets through Orbitz. The move comes after an Illinois state court lifted a temporary restraining order that would've prevented American from dropping the site. American has developed a system of its own called Direct Connect. The airline also wants to drive more bookings though its own Web site. Shocker." American is trying to pressure ticketing companies into using AA Direct Connect to handle all transactions with carriers. Fox Business says the airline stands to benefit quite a bit from the deal. "American's recent move is an attempt to change how that data are distributed and would reduce the airline's costs, cut out the middleman and enable it to get a bigger hold of online-travel purchases." No middleman - equals lower cost - equals lower air fares. Right? Weeellll, not really. According to the Chicago Tribune, consumer advocates — such as the Business Travel Coalition — say it would hampers consumers' ability to compare prices for airline tickets. "As soon as the information isn't all there, you can't compare apples to apples, the ...

Channel: YouTube Video Length: 1m 52s Date Found: Sun, Dec 26 2010 3:04 PM Category: News Date Produced: Sun, Dec 26 2010 2:50 PM View Count: 0