A corporate pressure group in the US has urged travel management companies and business travellers to take an American Airlines’ (AA) announcement about ticket sales with a pinch of salt.
The airline claimed it was selling more tickets now than at the same time last year, despite removing its content last week from one of the country’s largest online travel agencies (OTAs), and having its fares hidden on another.
The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) said significant omissions in a press release distributed by the carrier concealed the impact of its recent commercial disputes, and left a hole “large enough to fly an Airbus 380 through”.
On December 21, AA stopped distributing its fares on Orbitz – an OTA 49% owned by travel technology firm Travelport – after a court ruled the airline could tear up a contract that had committed it to providing all its content to the intermediary.
In a show of solidarity, Orbitz rival Expedia made AA fares harder to find on its search engine.
While the AA announcement could be considered an attempt to deflect negative press, the BTC insinuated that a failure to mention targeted sales initiatives launched by AA, and its then OTA partners, rendered the claims misleading.
The BTC said Orbitz customers were offered a 20% discount on AA tickets purchased before December 31, while Expedia customers were offered a similar deal at 15%.
“In such a price-sensitive environment for consumers, discounts of this magnitude no doubt increased AA’s bookings likely masking the true negative impact of its actions and business predicament,” it said in a statement.
“Indeed, these discounts represent the price AA now has to pay to maintain market share.”
The BTC predicted consumers who start the shopping process on Orbitz and Expedia before going to airline.com, would miss AA deals, and instead book on AA’s competitors’ websites.
“This could represent a much bigger number and bottom-line impact than AA was prepared for or is willing to acknowledge. Or, perhaps the buy-the-business discount initiatives represent tacit acknowledgment.”
AA claimed it had enjoyed an increase in bookings on its own website (www.aa.com) and on some other OTAs, including priceline.com and kayak.com.
Derek DeCross, American's vice president and sales manager, said in the release: “Our results to date show that consumer choice is alive and well and that our customers continue to have thousands of options to purchase American's competitive fares and convenient schedules.”
An Orbitz spokesman said his company would recoup the lost AA revenue – thought to be about US$800 million annually – from other airlines, though the companies were still trying to reach a new distribution agreement.
Click here to read the American Airlines' press release