Our agreements not only contain no provision barring any airline from making any fare available through any channel, they contain an affirmative non-exclusivity provision that makes it explicit that richmond hill travelodge no airline is prevented from making any fare it chooses available through any channel it chooses. our agreement contains a non-discrimination clause by which those airlines that will receive the indirect discount on the crs booking fee agree in return to make available on any fare they publish and make available to the general public through any other channel. but that of course does not preclude them from offering any fare through any other channel.

then the allegation that we are "an illegal boycott against third party distributors" because it has "requirements for posting fare sales that cannot be sold" by others is not true? it is absolutely not true, and those who have made that allegation had absolutely no basis for making it. our agreements contain no boycott against any distributors whatsoever, and in fact affirmatively provide that no airline is precluded from utilizing any other distribution channel or offering any fare through any channel. the department of justice is presently reviewing all agreements, so there will be no question on this point. do airlines today make all their fares available through all retail channels?

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.

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