<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by *HighFlyah*:
Is there indication that United is following the incentive-based commission route? In the linked article, action against United by Travelocity and Expedia was due to United's refusal to give them ANY commission, incentive-based or not.
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Not yet, but I would be very surprised if an agreement is not reached in the few weeks. It is all public posturing at this point. Most likely UA is trying a harder bargain than what Travelocity and Expedia offered.
Note that the airlines have picked a good time to do this bargaining. They have pretty good bookings through the next month (as evidenced by availability and fares through April) and the summer travel booking season is still a little bit away.
They are not going to be hurt during the bargaining period even if it stretches several weeks.
Northwest had postured quite a bit before signing an agreement.
The extra fee imposed by Travelocity and Expedia looks bad on the agencies to an average consumer as if they are trying to price gouge on the routes they want to travel on no matter how much explanation they provide.