Some airlines are making travelers work harder to find a deal. Carriers are offering more deals to passengers who book flights directly on their websites. It’s an effort to steer people away from online travel agencies such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, which charge the carriers commissions of roughly $10 to $25 a ticket.
While travelers save money, they also must do without the convenience of one-stop shopping.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines is the latest carrier to jump into the fight, announcing Wednesday that it will penalize passengers who don’t book directly with the airline. Those fliers won’t get seat assignments until check-in and will pay more in fees while earning half as many frequent-flier miles.
“Particularly for families, it provides an incentive to book directly,” said Daniel Shurz, Frontier’s senior vice president, commercial. “There is no logical reason for our customers to want to book anywhere else.”
Contracts with the online travel agencies prohibit airlines from offering lower fares on their sites. Instead, airlines such as JetBlue, Spirit and Virgin America often provide discount codes in e-mails to their frequent fliers or through Facebook and Twitter.
The savings for booking directly can be significant.
Toronto-based Porter Airlines frequently offers codes that save travelers up to 50 percent. A recent search of flights from Chicago to Toronto for November produced an airfare of $249.61 using a code at . The same flights would have cost $404.38 through Travelocity.
