Expedia Removes AA

Expedia announced it has moved beyond suppressing American Airlines' content and on to removing it altogether, following a statement this week by AA indicating its sales grew in December despite prior actions by Expedia and Orbitz. Here's Expedia's full statement on the latest escalation, issued today.

"We have been unable to reach an agreement with American Airlines due to American Airlines' new commercial strategy that we believe is anti-consumer and anti-choice.  American Airlines is attempting to introduce a new direct connect model that will result in higher costs and reduced transparency for consumers, making it difficult to compare American Airlines' ticket prices and options with offerings by other airlines.  American Airlines' direct connect model is of questionable, if any, benefit to travelers, would be costly to build and maintain and would compromise travel agents’ ability to provide travelers with the best selection. 

"As a result, the sale of American Airlines flights on our website has been suspended.  We remain open to doing business with American Airlines on terms that are satisfactory to Expedia and do not compromise our ability to provide consumers with the products and services they need. 

"We cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers.  With or without American Airlines' nventory, we have a robust supply base and broad array of choices for our customers and we continue to offer hundreds of flight options for the routes served by American Airlines."