United Airlines Expecting To Pull Its Fares From Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz Over Contract Dispute

United Airlines Expecting To Pull Its Fares From Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz Over Contract Dispute

CNBC reports that in a court filing on Monday, the tension between United Airlines and Expedia over a contract dispute seems to be getting worse.  Expedia complained that United Airlines is using its power as a large airline to renegotiate its agreement.

Expedia is suing United because it told the court it would lose a substantial amount of customers for years if United Airlines actually withdrew its fares from the travel website.  The company is asking the court to block United Airlines from cutting Expedia’s access to seats and fares past September 30, 2019.

Expedia argues that by cutting off flight data beyond September 30, 2019 will have significant impacts on customers who have already booked flights through Expedia past that date.  At the time the lawsuit was filed, customers had booked fares through Expedia for United flights through January 6, 2019.

United Airlines accused Expedia of failing to act in good faith saying the travel website, “refused to engage in constructive discussions.”  United Airlines also informed Expedia in the court filing that is “expects” to pull its fares from the Expedia website for travel October 1, 2019.  This would also impact Expedia’s two major subsidiaries, Travelocity and Orbitz.

United Airlines would join the list of U.S. airlines that don’t offer fares on third-party websites.  Southwest Airlines does not sell its fares on other travel websites altogether.  In 2017, JetBlue announced it was taking its fares off of over a dozen travel websites.