Earlier this week, I had heard rumblings that American would be back on Kayak, and now it appears to have happened. The two have apparently resolved their differences, and that can only be good for Kayak users.
I reached out to Kayak spokesperson Kellie Pelletier and she had the following to say:
Kayak.com is delighted to once again display schedules and fares directly from American Airlines on both Kayak.com and SideStep.com. Users can now compare AA itineraries alongside those from hundreds of leading airlines. Kayak.com remains committed to providing comprehensive and objective results to our millions of users.
They’ll be spreading the word to AAdvantage members and Kayak users later today by tomorrow at the latest. Naturally, the most important question was . . . how will the results be displayed? Sadly, I’m not getting an answer to that one:
AA and Kayak.com have resolved their dispute and have entered into a new agreement. I am unable to discuss the terms of this agreement.
Of course, it only takes a quick search to see that neither Orbitz nor CheapTickets are anywhere to be found on AA results.
So, it would appear that American won the battle to have their flights only shown from AA.com. Is it as good as it used to be for Kayak users? Nope. It’s always better to have results from multiple sites. But Kayak really needed to have AA results to make their comparisons worthwhile. If all they can do is get AA.com, it’s better than nothing.
7 comments on “American Flights are Back on Kayak”
I wonder what happens under different scenarios, like if the round trip is setup as two one ways on different airlines and one of them is AA?
I also wonder what happens if Orbitz for some reason has it cheaper than AA? Still hidden then or would it be just the AA.com listing?
Good question. I’m poked around a little, and I haven’t seen any multiple carrier itineraries showing up. So it appears that no AA flights will show up via Orbitz even though AA can’t sell those multiple carrier itineraries itself.
In other words, Kayak had decided the deal they had agreed to no longer suited them. Now they decided it does. Nothing changed.
I don’t see that as AA “won the battle.” It’s more like Kayak’s temper tantrum is over.