Serious mischaracterizations have been made about us and the issue of who will have access to what fares. Some of those mischaracterizations have been based on simple ignorance, but others have clearly been part of a concerted effort by us competitors to use misinformation to prevent us from offering new competition to them and new choice to consumers. There is no agreement by which any airline would be precluded from making any fare it chose available through any retail channel it chose. Airlines for 2 decades have been like any other business in America, in that they can decide what they want to charge and where they want to sell their product. And that remains true under the our agreements. Each and every airline, no matter what kind of participation it has, will be free to decide individually what fares it offers and whether or not to offer them through any other outlet.

Most customers most of the time will find lower fares, not because of web fares, and not because we will have access to fares that other channels (CRS''s and the sites and agents that rely on them) do not have access to, but because we will do a better job of searching the fares everyone has access to. This will be because we have opted to do what the others have not, which is invest in new technology computers able to do far bigger searches, using search software that that was independently developed and is designed to search all fare and schedule possibilities comprehensively and without bias, and in telecommunications capacity that will provide absolutely the most current information on seat availability. It is expected that more than 99% of the time that we come up with a better fare, it will not be because we had access to any fare that its competitor did not. It will be because we did a more comprehensive and unbiased search of all the fare and schedule possibilities that are available to all channels.

First, there is our high-powered, yet friendly, search engine. It guarantees you more travel options and the lowest publicly available fares. And that includes Internet-only fares for nearly thirty airlines. This capability, along with our commitment to unparalleled customer care, is what sets us apart from all other travel-planning Web sites. Explore the Difference in depth. It was obvious that the current state of the online travel market really didn''t serve the true needs of today''s travelers. The airlines shared a vision of the perfect travel site, one focused on the consumer. A site that would provide comprehensive and unbiased travel information as well as one that would make planning and buying travel on the Internet easy and hassle-free; instead of the usual scavenger hunt. Travelers will have all the information; so they can make informed decisions.

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