Maybe you’ve heard about the dust-up between American Airlines and several online travel agencies, including Orbitz and Expedia.

Maybe you’ve noticed that when you go fare-shopping on those travel sites, you aren’t offered any American flights.

“It’s really an inside baseball kind of story,” admits William Swelbar, a research engineer in MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation.

But not so fast. Yes, the intramural spat between airlines and travel agencies may seem irrelevant, but there’s a lot at stake. The future of how you buy airline tickets could hang in the balance.

Here’s what has happened: Late last year, American Airlines insisted that Orbitz switch the way it manages tickets from a traditional reservation system to one American developed, called Direct Connect.

When Orbitz declined, American pulled its tickets from the online travel agency. Then Expedia, the largest online travel agency, stopped selling American tickets in a related dispute.

Then Sabre, one of the largest reservations systems for travel agents, retaliated by “de-preferencing” American Airlines tickets on its displays, which essentially made American fares the last choice for tens of thousands of agents.

Since then, there have been lawsuits and court injunctions.

“This is a dispute over which company or travel industry sector controls price information,” says Edward Hasbrouck, a consumer advocate. “But consumers’ interest is in price transparency, which nobody in the industry really wants.”

In short, airlines and travel agencies are squabbling over how they show you ticket prices. Neither necessarily has your interests in mind, Hasbrouck says.

Online agencies typically show “base” airfares, minus taxes and optional fees. They allow travelers to compare prices between airlines, but those comparisons have become difficult as air carriers remove items from the ticket price such as checking a bag or making a seat reservation. Generally, airlines have refused to disclose these fees to travel agents.

By waiting until the end of the reservation to disclose fee information, airlines make more money because their tickets appear cheaper, and they can pocket all the profits from the extra fees they charge later. Travel agencies want access to the information, and they say that they want to disclose it earlier so that they can keep their customers from being surprised by these fees. Plus, they hope to sell you the extras up front, earning more commission.

Orbitz has kept a low profile, saying only that it is still trying to iron out its differences with American.

Not so with American Airlines. Cory Garner, director of distribution strategy, said one reason the airline is moving to Direct Connect is so that it can show a full airfare.

“We want the customer to know what the total cost of the trip is,” he says.

Garner said Direct Connect wouldn’t make it more difficult for travel agencies or consumers to shop for and compare American’s services with other airlines.

But American’s vision of transparency seems different from what the average consumer might be looking for. The website doesn’t offer you the choice to build a fare that includes a checked bag or a meal. Instead, it reveals the fees after you’ve chosen your flight.

Jim Osborne, a vice president at the travel agency consortium Virtuoso, is skeptical of American’s claims.

“The proposed fragmentation that could come if each airline required you to book directly with the airline would require the agency community to drastically change the way they do business,” he says. “Research would take much longer, and easy comparison shopping would no longer exist.”

That would be bad news for passengers, according to Andrew Weinstein, director of Open Allies for Airfare Transparency, a coalition of travel companies pushing for access to airlines fares and fees.

“By trying to turn back the clock to an era of closed systems and hidden pricing, airlines risk alienating their customers and closing off the very distribution channels they need in order to succeed,” he says.

(Source: Kansas City Star)