Getting There and Carried Away Airlines

For the average traveler it matters little who jet’s them and their luggage to parts known or unknown, the priority is always getting there. The war between big airlines and online travel agents just goes to show too, that corporate structures could care even less about their customers, as long as they have plenty of them willing to pay “their price,” for service.

American Airlines and Delta are in an all out war now with Expedia, Orbitz, and basically all the so called “middle men” in flight bookings. A superb article by Joe Brancatelli at Portfolio.com outlines these goings on, as we have covered the “war” ourselves. Brancatelli hammers home the real initiative to enter into open warfare for the airlines, price hikes and more profit.

Already all the major airlines, except Southwest and JetBlue Airways, hiked their prices just last month – interestingly (or not) exactly as the online booking wars got hot between the big players. The future of travel and air fares might be described best by the image below if corporate flight has its way.

So what is this to you the reader/travler? You are going to end up paying more for your flight basically. And if corporate flyboys have their way, you won’t get the utility of online ratings, reviews, community, comparison, or even new cutting edge travel tools either. Why would corporate America, let alone the corporate world, give more for less money?

All this back and forth from FairSearch and the impending Google -ITA-Google Travel scenario, to Airlines driving herds of passengers through their online turnstiles – none of it is about you. It’s about your money.

The only positive glimmer in this news is the potential for Google to alter the game. I know it seems we are unwaveringly on their side in this, but Google and their kind of business innovation is where the future is at. Prices are always going to be a concern, but what the consumer gets for those prices is what should be important.

Can you expect more from American Airlines and Expedia than from Google impartially returning a commodity? Well, that is an answer only you can supply. Expedia is worried about Google taking over travel – when American Airlines and Delta want to take it over?

Getting There is of paramount import, but before, during, and after the flight other values are present – think about it.