Expedia fires salvo at American

In a rare cooperative alliance move, Expedia announced that, in light of the AA action against Orbitz in not making its inventory available, that Expedia would drop AA fares and selections to a second click thru level (non preferential display). This is a preemptive move that is almost unprecedented.

In response, American Airlines spokesman Ryan Mikolasik called the action "discriminatory" and "unwarranted."

"This is especially considering that American has taken no action against Expedia and continues to operate in good faith with Expedia," Mikolasik said.

Mikolasik said American would explore its options to "correct" the situation.

It is against distribution contract to actively refuse to sell one airline, it is not illegal to make it non preferential.

I think that all consumers and the distrubution model for airline ticket sales should be watching closely AA's actions and respond as a collective market to communicate and express their feelings about AA's decisions. We cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers and the open market. I acknowledge that airline, as any business, can make many business decisions without influence and that is their right. However, with air service being a fundamental back bone of our economy, we have to pay attention to airlines decisions and how they affect the market. In this case, their business obligations go beyond the boardroom and shareholders and reachs our entire nation/economy.