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The nation’s third-biggest airline has filed suit against Orbitz Worldwide, the second-biggest online travel site, and Travelport, the company behind Orbitz’s reservation system, saying they’ve taken “‘unprecedented’” steps to discourage use of American’s preferred direct booking pipeline.

American’s push for travel agents to start using its direct link to find its fares and flights rather than the centralized systems that currently pool most airlines’ price information has set off a series of clashes.

Brian Hoyt, a spokesman for Orbitz, called the lawsuit “‘completely baseless. … Their goal is to make it harder for consumers, to make it harder to comparison shop.’”

source: USA Today

Filed under American Airlines, Traditional airlines.