I know you have heard about this…….

This shit has been going on since the 70’s.

Airlines hate their distribution system with a passion usually saved for ex-mother in laws.   And now, the siblings  American Airlines and its reservations system Sabre could not make it through the family Christmas party without getting drunk and throwing insults – and then punches.

Anyone running Travel Affiliate Programs knows that almost every trip starts with Airfare (unless you are doing hotels in local drive markets).

That means that American Airlines actions can affect you.

In some ways its good.  Without Expedia/Orbitz/Sabre’s access to AA fares, competition from them in heavy AA markets (Caribbean, London) will drop.

But if you are dependant on AA to bus your traffic to their destinations and the other airlines don’t have much in the way of lift, you have trouble.   If you notices, flights are full.   Not because more people are flying, but because the number of flights into most areas have dropped dramatically.

So,  Questions to ask yourself:

1.  How do people get to my product?

ie….Air/Rail/Bus – yuck/Water/Car/Walk

2.  Is my product supplier dependant on AA airfares?

ie….Expedia/Orbitz/Priceline/OneTravel/Farebuzz etc

3.  Is ‘Their’ product supplier dependant on airfares?

ie…Sabre/Amadeus/ITA/Pegasus etc

4.  Are your customers AA Frequent Flyers?

because……they are getting bombed with direct sell propoganda (I am)

5. Are your customers Corporate travelers?

……..corp travel departments are pissed and ‘may’ sell away from AA or stop traveling for a short while.

6.  Can you drop your Affiliate Commission % and still survive?

……WTF, its only $2.00 per booking now!!!

Here is a link to a good review of the problem from Travel Weekly.

And here is another from Peter Greenburg that we found interesting.

Also……Watch out for Delta….it is quietly cutting ties with a number of online Travel Marketers like  OneTravel and Bookit…….. and Delta is watching to see if American tucks its tail and runs or keeps on truckin’

That’s how it looks here at TravelDividends…..

**Sent from Jamaica using my Ipad. Please excuse any misspellings or general abuse of the english language.  I have gone Mobile.