Kayak sinking?

Once named the best travel search engine, Kayak has suffered a serious blow with the announcement that American Airlines is pulling its listings from the popular travel site. Apparently American is considering ditching Orbitz as well, according to this article from TechCrunch.

Although the airlines aren’t thrilled about the booking fees which are associated with any of the popular online search sites, American was particularly annoyed with Kayak. According to American, Kayak pulled flight info from fellow search site Orbitz, rather than directly from the airline itself. That nifty little trick resulted in two sets of fees, one to Kayak and one to Orbitz.

Travel sites be forewarned, airlines are fickle partners. Back in the day, travel agents also received commissions from the airlines, until the airlines found cheaper partners to work with. Travel sites would do well to have a backup revenue stream in case the same happens to them.