Study Examines Web Travel Services
 

Consumer Reports Travel Letter found that the dominant online travel sites -- Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, Lowestfare.com and Cheaptickets.com -- may give special treatment to certain airlines, instead of listing their flights based purely on lowest fare, editor Bill McGee said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nyre...avel-Bias.html

I found that to be true at various times when requesting "lowest" fares from some of those travel sites. To avoid this, I've had to specify an airline of my choice, thus eliminating the most favored airline(s) of their choice.

Same thing w/o having to log in
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/t...tix001004.html

I've heard the same thing about Delta and their stake in Priceline. Don't have any articles to confirm though.

Microsoft's Expedia is expected to unveil a new technology platform for its Web site that ratchets up a software battle between the major online travel-booking services, according to todays WSJ!

Cheap Tickets, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTIX - news), a premier seller of discount leisure travel services, today announced that it will alert customers of airline schedule changes that may impact travel plans. This innovative approach to consumer care gives Cheap Tickets customers a significantly higher level of customer service.

To implement the plan, Cheap Tickets has formed a special consumer alert team. The team, which operates from one of the four Cheap Tickets national call centers, will now attempt to contact customers by phone to advise them of departure changes that are ten minutes or more, and, of other changes to their schedules, up until the day before departure.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010327/latu038.html