Major airlines limits third party travel sites
Many third party travel sites like Expedia, Kayak, TripAdvisor,Booking, Hot-wire, and many other travel sites have made booking and buying air tickets cheaper and provided flight information easier than ever.
In an effort to promote its own official website, provide additional airlines services and reduce distribution costs, many airlines are holding back flight information and started declining the services to an unauthorized travel sites. Travelers often seek and compare tickets prices from these travel sites, but after banning third party travel sites travelers are bound to comply with airline’s ticket charge.
Europe’s largest airline group Lufthansa even charged up to $18 fine to the passengers who bought the airline ticket through any third-party sites. Likewise, Delta Airlines added different services offered by other travel sites to their own sites to attract traffic to its own channel. Officials of these airlines say their sites contain the most accurate information about flight, ticket costs and without having to pay booking fees. Internal channels of airlines are thus constructed to control and attain more degree of freedom about what services they sell to the passengers.
photo courtesy: img.planespotters.net
