Are online travel agencies biased?
Most travel agencies (other than discounters and agencies that charge service fees) are biased toward airlines and other suppliers of travel products, and against consumers. There’s an additional question, however, of whether agencies, or their Web sites, are biased toward particular travel services vendors. If a travel Web site lists one airline first, is that because that airline is the best choice for you, or because it’s the best choice for the agency? In most cases, any bias in online displays of airline prices and options is accidental. But that is changing — for the worse. Just as a skilled salesperson in any shop will suggest that you buy the product on which they make the most money, so travel agencies have every reason to program their computers to suggest the choices on which they make the largest commissions. To date, most online travel agencies have relied on simpleminded interfaces that merely display whatever options a CRS suggests, in the order they are listed in the C
