The battle between American Airlines and its online travel agency enemies has stepped up another gear with the airline claiming there is so far no impact at all on ticket sales.
Just seven days after Expedia removed American Airlines's fares from search results, in part supporting Orbitz and also the agency-GDS distribution model, airline executives are trying to hit back.
In a statement, AA says it has seen an increase in overall ticket sales (year-on-year) since its dispute with Orbitz took another twist early last week and again following the spat with Expedia.
The airline admits year-on-year tickets rises have been seen also in early-December, but has also made a specific point of noting "a shift" in ticket sales to other sites, such as Priceline and leads from Kayak.
Priceline wouldn't confirm or deny whether it has been impacted by American Airlines-related developments at Orbitz and Expedia.
"We’ll release our total airline tickets sold when we report our fourth quarter 2010 [results], probably sometime in February," said Priceline spokesman Brian Ek.
And, Kayak declined to comment.
Thanking customers "for their continued loyalty" (sales up on AA.com as well, it says), vice president and general sales manager Derek DeCross reckons other tickets sellers are "capitalizing" on the opportunity.
Barking on the sidelines, however, is the Business Travel Coalition.
Within a few hours of AA's statement, BTC poured a healthy dose of cynicism over the airline's boasts, claiming that customers that had used Orbitz and Expedia for previous fares were emailed with special discounted tickets.
Orbitz customers were offered a 20% discount, Expedia's got 15%.
The BTC says:
"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.
"Indeed, these discounts represent the price AA now has to pay to maintain market share."