After a recent experience I have made a decision. There is never a need to pay for a ticket via AA site, and possibly others. Orbitz has a great feature where they will refund the price difference if your ticket price is lowered.

I recently paid for a few tickets on AA for $309 each. Could have gotten the same tickets on Orbitz. A month later, AA runs a sale and the tickets are now $199. I called AA and they said they don't have a price match feature. They can rebook the flight, but the $100 rebooking fee applies. If I would have purchased through Orbitz, I would have recieved a $110 refund per ticket.

Is my reasoning sound that you should never purchase tickets via the airlines site?