American Airlines' Lawsuit Against Ticket Consolidator Reveals Details About Hidden Practices

25.08.2023 - 21:17 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal

American Airlines has sued airline ticket consolidator U.S.A. Gateway — which does business as GTT Travel — alleging that GTT duped travelers into thinking they were booking direct with American, and then gouged them with exorbitant fares and fees.

The ticket consolidator business isn’t well known, even to some travel industry insiders. But the lawsuit, filed late last month, opens a window into the business model. GTT has until September 22 to respond to the airline’s complaint, and didn’t immediately respond to Skift’s request for comment.

GTT’s website states it is “the largest air ticketing consolidator in the U.S.,” and the lawsuit notes that it claims to generate annual “turnover” of more than $2 billion.

Airlines may use consolidators so they can sell otherwise empty seats at steep discounts without publicizing how much they are reducing their published fares.

American said that GTT — which lists partnerships with American, United, Delta, Lufthansa, Emirates and around 50 other global airlines on its website — negotiates a contract with American to get access to the airline’s fare code discounts for itself and its travel agency partners. These might include net or wholesale rates. GTT also earns incentivesbased on volumes of tickets sold. According to the suit, it drives those volumes by striking partnerships with travel agencies.

Here are additional ways that GTT and other airline ticket consolidators make money, according to the lawsuit:

In one instance cited in the lawsuit, a GTT sub-agent charged a flyer $1,500 for what should have been an airfare of around $1,000, and GTT allegedly helped its travel agency partner “hide the additional $500 charge.”

“GTT and its sub-agents have been engaging in extremely deceptive practices solely to profit GTT and at a cost to travelers,” American told Skift in a statement. “GTT is overcharging and hiding charges from customers and engaging in prohibited ticketing practices. Such actions are harmful and unfair to consumers, misrepresent American Airlines, and violate numerous clauses of GTT’s contracts with our airline.”

Another major point in the lawsuit is that GTT allegedly doesn’t keep track of its sub-agents’ activities, and refuses to provide their names to the airline, as called for in their contract.

The lawsuit alleged that GTT and its travel agency partners at times inflate the actual fare and pocket the difference.

These GTT contractors, the lawsuit alleges, trick consumers with deceptive phone numbers, websites, and social media posts that make consumers think they booking directly with American Airlines – when in fact they are dealing with GTT. This increases GTT’s volumes, incentives and commissions, the lawsuit alleges.

As with American’s