I guess it was off Hotwire, Orbitz and Expedia, but they came to terms recently and made some kind of agreement. American Airlines had been "out" for about three months because they wanted to lower the commission fee that they would have to pay these third party websites. Apparently, the first fight that they picked was with Orbitz and Expedia removed them as a supportive move- probably because they were having issues with American Airlines too. I bet American airways is just a big bully! Anyway, they are still not back on Orbitz but can be found on both Expedia and Hotwire right now. I am sure that they realized how many people don't care what airlines they fly and lost a lot of business when they were not listed on the discount sites anymore! People just switch to the airlines that are there, which is totally fine for most people, and don't even miss American Airlines.

I have actually seen several different news stories printed on this topic and I am not yet clear on what the actual truth is. There was something about a dispute over the commission that the sites like Hotwire gets when they book American airways flights. The airlines (all of them) are cutting back big time, and even raising prices, so they were probably looking to cut the middle man out of the picture as well. The only problem is that (at least I have heard) one third of Americans buy their airline tickets from sites like Hotwire, Expedia, Orbitz, and Cheaptickets. I guess that, in order to try it out, American Airlines removed themselves from Orbitz, as if Orbitz was their guinea pig, just to see if it would make a difference in sales. I guess the other websites had a problem with that so they pulled out too. I don't know what the real story is.

I heard that American Airlines didn't settle the fee they owed to Orbitz to be on their site. So Orbitz took them off until they paid it. I guess Expedia and Hotwire took American airways off their sites too, but they are back on after settling a fee dispute. I guess Orbitz fees were too high to begin with because Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which also includes Alamo and National Car Rental are also done doing business with Orbitz. Maybe they were charging the highest fees because they were the most popular site? Orbitz is the same as Cheaptickets, so I bet things are messy right now. I guess Dollar and Thrifty Car Rental companies are stepping up to give Orbitz lower fees during this time because they are the main competitors.