• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

s u b s c r i b e

• Elliott's E-Mail, a free weekly newsletter, is your insider resource for moneysaving ideas.

First name

Last name

E-mail address

Subscribe
Cancel

• Like what you see? Now you can become an underwriter.

a l s o

• Ticked e-mail
• Visit Tripso
• Referring sites
• Home

s e a r c h

• Find a story.



(c) Elliott Publishing.

Why I Like ITA
Cheap Charlie · September 11, 2000

My column last week should have been headlined, "Why I like ITA." Rather than "Why I like Orbitz."

After writing about ITA and the Orbitz search engine, I got e-mail from both companies. Both of the e-mails answered some of the questions that I have about the systems.

One of my major concerns with Orbitz linking with ITA software was the possibility that ITA would be crippled and limited to one partner. I have since learned that the ITA/Orbitz arrangement is not exclusive. ITA can work with other reservation engines to provide flight search capabilities.

This ITA Software independence is very important. It is this unique software that searches out dramatically more rates combinations and displays them in an understandable whole that is the real prize in the new world of online travel.

The real battle will not be waged between Orbitz and Travelocity, but rather between the search capabilities of ITA Software on one side and Sabre together with the old technology CRS entities.

I trust that the airlines will be forced to evenly distribute their flight information, including Internet fares, to Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Trip, and others. The Senate and House will be on that case and more than likely will legislate the obvious. The real differences between systems will be how much information is displayed and how passenger-friendly that information is.

This is the portion of the arena that ITA has opened to competition after decades of CRS-based systems. The old systems just do not do as good a job as ITA when it comes to letting passengers know what options are available to them.

The airlines will have the ability to lower their distribution costs to some degree using their own online booking engine. With Congressional dictates, rate and flight information provided to Orbitz will be the same at that provided to Expedia, Sabre, and others.

The biggest difference will be how much information the user or passengers will have at their fingertips, and how easily that information can be accessed. Here the difference between old technology and ITA Software is extraordinary.

Here is where the next battles will be fought in terms of online travel. Innovation cannot be regulated. The better system that puts more power in the hands of the consumer will win in the long run once it has an equal opportunity.

Having Orbitz as the introductory platform for the new ITA Software search capabilities, puts it on equal footing with the old technology. They are both in the ring together now. I'm putting my bets on ITA.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at cheapch@aol.com or access his Web site.