A few months back Frontier Airlines made a major change to the way it handles bookings made through 3rd party sites, cutting benefits like advanced seat assignments and frequent flier points earnings. Apparently those changes weren’t enough to get the partnership costs down enough to make all the OTA relationships viable. As of this week Frontier has pulled their inventory off of Expedia.com. The information was announced in a press release titled, "Now Even More Reason to Book on FlyFrontier.com" and accompanied by a sale for direct bookings.
Frontier Airlines today announced that, effective immediately, its schedules and fares will no longer be available on Expedia. As always, Frontier’s best fares continue to be found on its website at FlyFrontier.com. When you book at FlyFrontier.com, Frontier guarantees you’ll get the best travel value with its Best Fare Guarantee. Additionally, Frontier fares will continue to be distributed through a number of other online travel sites.
Clearly OTA distribution costs are a big deal for airlines. I just wonder if they really are happy losing the business which comes along with dropping the OTAs. American Airlines was the most recent carrier to go through similar battles. After lawsuits and lots of negotiations they’re mostly back online, but not fully settled with everything. Seems these battles take time.
Related Posts:
- More fees, fewer points for some Frontier passengers
- American’s Direct Connect doing brisk business via Priceline
- Amadeus and United extend partnership – with a twist
- Expedia joins the Orbitz/American Airlines fight
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I booked Frontier via Travelocity for the UltimateRewards bonus.