Arthur's Blog: Other Airlines Emulate Frontier's Move to Sidestep OTAs

Recently, I wrote about the decision of Frontier Airlines to make second class citizens out of people who booked seats on that carrier through an Online Travel Agency (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, and others). Starting immediately, Frontier will permit advance seat reservations to be made only by people who book their tickets directly from Frontier's website, and not those from the OTA's. It will limit other perks to the same people booking direct, and deny those perks to passengers dealing with those pesky OTA's.

Turns out, according to yesterday's travel section of the New York Times, that Frontier's anti-OTA policies are part of a broader drive by several major airlines, and several big hotel chains, to force customers to make their bookings directly on the websites of those airlines and hotels. Numerous airlines and hotel chains have now announced powerful "Price Guarantees." If an OTA (or anyone else) offers a lower price than the airline or hotel has quoted, the airline/hotel will not only match that lower price, but will also confer a present, an award, or gift, on the person making that booking: a voucher for for a certain amount of future air transportation or hotel stay, or some similar goodie.

Some hotel chains are now giving frequent points only to persons who book direct with them -- and this trend seems bound to continue. 

Beyond that move, several airlines and hotel chains are now making use of their Twitter feeds to confer benefits on persons who make their bookings directly with the airline or hotel in question. JetBlue is especially prominent in this maneuver, and the Times suggests that you go to Google and insert three words: the name of the airline, the word "code", and the word "Twitter". Voilà! Out will often pop an airfare at a considerable discount, saving you as much as $100 per person -- and more.

In other words, the airlines and hotel chains are flinging down a gauntlet. They have declared war. They are no longer willing to give away big commissions to the OTA's, and those policies are not simply confined to Frontier Airlines but extend way beyond that western carrier to much larger air carriers.

What all this comes down to is that you simply must devote a few more minutes than usual to obtaining your air tickets on the internet. Although you might want to consult an OTA (the big four that I named above, as well as Kayak.com, Hipmunk.com, Momondo.com, Do-Hop.com, and others) to determine what prices and flights are offered for a particular trip, you will then want to go directly to the airline you've chosen for the actual purchase of tickets. The process takes a greater time than usual, but the results may be greatly to your benefit: a guaranteed price that will be further reduced if anyone in the chain lowers the price; the right to reserve seats; the receipt of enhanced frequent flyer privileges through purchase of the ticket from the airline.