Word: expedia
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...operators--of airlines, cruise lines, hotels and attractions--will go out of business. (Midway Airlines and Renaissance Cruise Lines became early casualties last month.) Perhaps hardest hit are the country's travel agents, already weakened by a squeeze on commissions and tough competition from Internet-based booking operations like Expedia, Priceline and Travelocity. According to the American Society of Travel Agents, its 20,000 corporate members are losing at least $70 million...
...with the economy, airlines are slashing fares to get more vacationers on board. One of the few industry bright spots is online travel. Consumers spend more than $1 billion a month at travel sites, a third of all the money spent online, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Top sites Expedia and Travelocity reported their first operating profits this spring. Even beleaguered Priceline says it's finally in the black...
...billion domestic-travel market--but now sites are getting enough paying customers to turn a profit. Southwest Airlines sells more than a third of its tickets on southwest.com and rewards Web shoppers with double miles. With airlines beginning to draw customers to their own sites, online agents like Expedia are selling more vacation packages and cruises with fat profit margins of 15% to 20%--a far cry from the $10 commissions that airlines...
Unless the DOJ clips Orbitz's wings, the site is likely to put the squeeze on independent agents like Expedia. "Orbitz isn't going to put Travelocity or Expedia out of business, but it's going to stir up the pot," says Harteveldt, who expects Web travel sales to top $29 billion...
...rivals say Orbitz is a Trojan horse that will initially offer low prices, pound competitors out of business and then raise prices. They cite the "most-favored-nation" clause, which requires member airlines to offer Orbitz every low fare they negotiate with others. Expedia vice president Eric Blachford says that clause gives Orbitz an unfair advantage. CEO Jeffrey Katz insists that Orbitz, which is a separate corporation, won those stipulations fair and square through arm's-length negotiations and technology that reduces booking costs. "Orbitz is operating completely within the law," he says...