I really like to use one or two online travel comparison sites when I shop for travel.  I usually use Kayak to search for flights and Expedia to search for everything else.

I know that Southwest doesn't publish their rates on the big comparison sites.  Sometimes I will go to the Southwest site and soemtimes I will forget to do that.  Either way, it is annoying that all of the flight information can't be found in one place.

This is why I am writing this blog post.  I fear that the ease of using online travel comparison sites is going to die soon.  American Airlines and other travel companies are starting to pull their rates from the large comparison sites and onlione travel agencies.  It will be really annoying if I have to go to a ton of sites to check on the price of similar flights or hotel/resort rates.

In addition to the time it takes to check multiple sites, I know that some of the airline sites are not as user friendly as the comparison sites.  This means the process will take even longer and be more frustrating.

I understand that airlines want to book flights on their own sites.  I understand that they want to try to sell us extra leg room seats and other add ons to increase their profits.  However, I don't want to search every site to find the best deals.  I just want an easy way to do travel comparison shopping.

I have no idea how the new Google merger with ITA will change the travel search business.  Hopefully Google will be able to use their clout to keep airlines in the listings so everyone can do an easy side by side comparison of airfare and hotel rates.

We need to do something about this.  Airlines are thinking about their bottom line while ignoring the desires of their consumers.  Please spread the word that we need to let the airlines know that we don't want see comparison travel sites die.