Airlines Push Back Against Comparison-Shopping Travel Websites

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- Before booking a flight, many travelers shop around online to find the best deal.

However, airlines don't necessarily want consumers cashing in on sky-high savings.

Southwest has long sold its fares exclusively on its own website. Luftansa recently announced it will start charging $18 more for tickets sold on comparison sites, and last year Delta pulled its information from several sites like Trip Advisor arguing they don't have permission to use Delta's data at all.

"The comparison shopping experience is going to get worse as more big airlines restrict information," Dr. Fiona Scott Morton of Yale University explained, "So it's in the interest of the airlines to make these searches difficult to do."

As CBS2's Weijia Jiang reported, Morton's study found the higher the number of comparison sites, the lower the cost of the ticket.

Morton said shoppers suffer search fatigue. The more sites they're forced to visit, the more likely they are to settle for a more expensive price.

Not everyone is concerned.

"It's really not that big of a deal for consumers, it's a big deal for some of these small sites," she said.

Travel researcher Douglas Quinby pointed out that Delta and others still share with big players like Travelocity, Expedia, and Priceline. Those sites control the bulk of lucrative business travelers.

He agreed that Delta's move may set an important precedent that airlines own access to their fare and schedule information and control who displays it.

"I think we may start to see over the next few years, more airlines pull some of their content or be more assertive about how their content is displayed," travel researcher Douglas Quinby said.

Ultimately, airlines make the most money when they can funnel people back to their own sites to push add-ons and upgrades. That resulted in $50-million for delta last year alone.