American Airlines is fast becoming a pariah in the online travel industry, as another major online travel company, Sabre Holdings Corporation, has announced today that it will drop the airline’s fares in August.
Sabre, which owns the travel site Travelocity and provides airfare data to travel agencies, says it will also end discounts for American and make changes to the way its listings are displayed.
Sabre currently has a contract with American and plans to cut ties with the airline one month before their contract ends.
This is the second blow against American this week. Earlier this week, Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, began hiding the carrier’s fares in its listings.
A part of Expedia’s decision to hide American’s flights is based on a dispute over the airline’s booking system. However, both Expedia and Sabre are also acting in solidarity against American’s attempts to drive customers and agents to its own reservation system, cutting out online middlemen.
American made the first move by removing its airfare listings from Orbitz.com, an online travel agency, late last month. The carrier and the travel agency parted ways after a long dispute over how the airline’s fares should be accessed.
The escalating tension between the airline and online travel providers has many travel industry analyst worried about the consumer repercussions. The loss of American on major online booking sites means that it is harder to compare fares between competing airlines.
For now, only Delta Air Lines is making a similar move to opt out of online travel agencies. Delta pulled its fares from three smaller online agencies late last month.
By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com .
Related Links:â?¨ USA Today, New York Times
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