Background information about the fare display dispute between American Airlines and Kayak, which had landed up in court, you can find here. The summary is that American sued Kayak Software Corp. and sister concern Sidestep for directing visitors looking for AA fares to partner online booking sites like Orbitz, instead of sending them directly to American’s AA.com website. Kayak had earlier pulled American’s fare listings instead of complying with American’s requirement that visitors looking for AA flights be directed solely to the AA website.

The latest news is that the dispute is now settled, and American Airlines’ fares and schedules are on display again at Kayak.com and Kayak’s sister website Sidestep.com.

In a blog post, Kayak spokesperson Kellie Pellitier says that “Kayak.com is delighted to once again display schedules and fares directly from American Airlines on both Kayak.com and SideStep.com. Users can now compare AA itineraries alongside those from hundreds of leading airlines. Kayak.com remains committed to providing comprehensive and objective results to our millions of users.”

An American Airlines newsletter says that “American Airlines schedules and fares are again being displayed on Kayak.com and SideStep.com. You can now find our content through these meta-search engines for purchase on our award-winning web site, AA.com.”

As you can see in the screenshot, there are only links to AA.com, so I think we can assume that Kayak caved in, and agreed to American’s demands to remove links to partner booking sites. I have left messages with both AA and Kayak spokespersons, so hopefully we’ll be able to shed more light on the terms of the settlement soon.

Posted on October 25th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News