American Airlines plans one-day sale on Net
American Airlines, Yahoo and Travelocity.com are partnering to offer deeply discounted airfare in a sale that lasts through Wednesday only.
In the latest sign that the airlines are turning to the Internet to kick off price promotions, American will offer round-trip tickets ranging in price from $70 to $314, the companies announced Tuesday evening. Tickets will be made available through Travelocity and Yahoo Travel.
The partnership between American and Travelocity is noteworthy because American is among a group of airlines that helped form Orbitz, the controversial online travel agency and Travelocity competitor.
Dallas-based Travelocity is one of the top online travel agencies and is backed by Sabre, one of the world's largest computer-based reservation systems for travel agents.
For more than a year, critics of Orbitz accused the airlines that bankrolled the Web travel agency, which launched in June, of creating the company to run other travel agencies out of business. The argument was that the airlines would give Orbitz exclusive access to discounted fares and thereby undercut Travelocity and Expedia, the two top online travel agencies. This latest deal appears to fly in the face of that.
While the companies quoted prices that include trips from Los Angeles to New York for $250 and from Miami to Boston for $180, the one-day offer also includes restrictions. Among them are that the discounted tickets are good only for travel between Aug. 22 and Dec. 13 and not available for Labor Day or Thanksgiving holidays.