spudsmac

Yeah I can see how it would be a problem.

Rama

The internet has changed the way a lot of things are purchased. In the race for the lowest fares carriers have added fees to make up for the lost revenue. Hotels are doing the same now with "resort fees" and Amazon sells pretty much anything you want at discount prices and free shipping. Good or bad the way things are marketed and sold keeps changing and its up to the management of all the companies involved to adjust and be profitable or fall behind. Most airlines made money in 2010 even with a slow economy

HSLD

You realize that it's the airlines' yield management departments that set ticket prices, and not ticket aggregators, right? Yield management has become highly dynamic, although airlines maintain complete autonomy in terms of pricing.

Thedude

How..how...how...???
As a previous poster said, its all about yield management. The only place that orbitz and the like have hurt are the travel agencies.


This ranks right up there with the poster that said frequent flyer miles were going to bankrupt the airlines.

tortue

I'm amazed by the lack of clue in this thread.

Airline ticketing websites have nothing to do with the price of tickets. Sure, they make the ability to purchase and perform price comparisons easier but the airlines in the end call the shots. The travel agents are the ones who got pinched in the deal...but I don't care, they've milked the system for decades with their surcharges, getting kickbacks and significant personal discounts on travel/hotels.

Each airline aggressively monitors (and usually outsources) the monitoring and rate-setting of tickets based upon legs, class of tickets and what other airlines are charging for the same ticket or a similar ticket. Why do you think ITA Software got acquired by Google? Because most of the airlines give them (and a few other folks) money to do the hard math to stay competitive on pricing in real time.