Of course, if you're among the 40-plus percent of people in the United States who don't have your own access to the Internet and are unlikely to get it, then you'll not be enjoying what the airlines involved say will be the greatest gift they've ever given to seekers of low fares. Orbitz, using powerful software developed at MIT, will make available online all of the special Internet fares that travelers now can find only by going to individual airline Web sites. These are fares, the carriers say, that won't be available from other travel Web sites or through travel agents. Of the largest U.S. airlines, only Southwest, which does quite well selling its own low fares on the Web, is unlikely to participate in Orbitz. But the Orbitz-ing airlines face a daunting list of hurdles to get the site under way, including investigations by competition regulators at the U.S. Departments of Justice and Transportation and members of Congress.
Groups representing consumers, business travelers and travel agents are also opposed.
No one disputes that fares overall are lower today, by about a third, than they probably would have been if the airlines business had not been deregulated more than two decades ago. But after a summer of discontent over delayed flights, almost two years of a growing disgruntlement about passenger service, and business-traveler unhappiness over high fares and limited competition in many cities, this is not a particularly good time for airlines to form what looks like a cozy new club. The competition conference, sponsored by the consumer-oriented Business Travel Coalition, provided a forum for Orbitz officials to defend the venture and to argue that it represents a great leap forward compared with the computer technology now in use by airlines, other travel Web sites and travel agents. Those sites get the bulk of their fare information from one of four computer reservation systems, the same systems used by travel agents. The critics of Orbitz say that the CRS systems have evolved over the years into consumer-friendly devices, largely because they are subject to federal regulations designed to make them unbiased when it comes to displaying the fares of different airlines.