Comments on: American Airlines cut ties with Kayak.com http://www.travelwires.com/wp/2008/08/american-airlines-cut-ties-with-kayakcom/ Travel and tourism business blog in Africa Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:42:29 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Lessinfo http://www.travelwires.com/wp/2008/08/american-airlines-cut-ties-with-kayakcom/comment-page-1/#comment-336 Lessinfo Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:25:14 +0000 http://www.travelwires.com/wp/?p=2151#comment-336 Moreinfo's post is misleading. There is no exclusive agreement between Kayak and Orbitz that excludes airline direct results to be shown. Such an agreement would be idiotic. To prove this to yourself: Kayak shows e.g. UA solutions show up with booking options at united.com, orbitz.com and cheaptickets.com, lowest price at united.com - this could not happen if an agreement as you describe it existed. So you've got the issue confused - it is AA (not kayak) that wants exactly such an agreement in its favor (if the solution is available on AA.com, suppress any other provider). Furthermore, Orbitz doesn't pay EXTRA money to Kayak. There are usually 2 basic ways to pay for traffic - per click - or per booking. Not nearly all clicks convert to bookings - so a per-booking deal with a provider will have a higher per-instance cost. You can bet that the root of this argument lies at just what kind of a deal AA can get out of Kayak - i.e. pay as little (preferably nothing) as possible for clicks or bookings. Moreinfo’s post is misleading.
There is no exclusive agreement between Kayak and Orbitz that excludes airline direct results to be shown. Such an agreement would be idiotic. To prove this to yourself: Kayak shows e.g. UA solutions show up with booking options at united.com, orbitz.com and cheaptickets.com, lowest price at united.com – this could not happen if an agreement as you describe it existed.

So you’ve got the issue confused – it is AA (not kayak) that wants exactly such an agreement in its favor (if the solution is available on AA.com, suppress any other provider).

Furthermore, Orbitz doesn’t pay EXTRA money to Kayak. There are usually 2 basic ways to pay for traffic – per click – or per booking. Not nearly all clicks convert to bookings – so a per-booking deal with a provider will have a higher per-instance cost.

You can bet that the root of this argument lies at just what kind of a deal AA can get out of Kayak – i.e. pay as little (preferably nothing) as possible for clicks or bookings.

]]> By: Moreinfo http://www.travelwires.com/wp/2008/08/american-airlines-cut-ties-with-kayakcom/comment-page-1/#comment-335 Moreinfo Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:45:43 +0000 http://www.travelwires.com/wp/?p=2151#comment-335 Your story is incomplete. You fail to notice that Kayak is not serving objective results as it has signed exclusive Agreement with Orbitz who pays the EXTRA money to drive traffic exclusively to the Orbitz site. If Kayak modifies results and removes AA even when they have cheaper flights and instead shows only Orbitz because they get MORE money from them. Than 1) no wonder AA is upset 2) KAYAK IS AND WILL NEVER BE OBJECTIVE 3) it is not good for consumers that Kayak is modifying results in order to make more money !!! I guess you will see more and the truth and transparency will come up! Your story is incomplete. You fail to notice that Kayak is not serving objective results as it has signed exclusive Agreement with Orbitz who pays the EXTRA money to drive traffic exclusively to the Orbitz site. If Kayak modifies results and removes AA even when they have cheaper flights and instead shows only Orbitz because they get MORE money from them. Than
1) no wonder AA is upset
2) KAYAK IS AND WILL NEVER BE OBJECTIVE
3) it is not good for consumers that Kayak is modifying results in order to make more money !!!

I guess you will see more and the truth and transparency will come up!

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