You’re planning a trip to Chicago, and your travel agent quotes a price for the Fairmont. How did that hotel come up first?
Most likely because the company that runs Fairmont paid for top billing on the travel agent’s computer screen.
Bias is increasingly creeping into travel agency computers, and as a result, it’s getting tougher for customers to easily spot the best prices. Travel sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz cut special deals with particular hotels and airlines and push those offerings on their displays.
The same thing is beginning to happen with the computerized reservations systems, including the widely used Sabre Holdings Corp. system that traditional travel agents use.
Airlines are also starting to pay to have their flights listed ahead of competitors, even if they involve inconvenient connections. That might explain some quirks. A CheapTickets.com search this month for non-stop flights to Chicago from Minneapolis, for example, first listed several Delta Air Lines flights with connections – some more than six hours of total travel time – through Atlanta. CheapTickets, a unit of Cendant Corp., didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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