Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2006
Abstract
Customers who use Internet websites find and buy lower fares than do those who use travel agents for similar trips, even though for most large U.S. airlines the fares and availability offered through both channels are the same (because of contractual obligations). Economic and marketing theory offers "transparency" and "lowered search costs" as primary explanations. In an effort to understand, describe and corroborate those explanations, we studied the behavioral changes implied by the Internet, asking customers how they have understood the transition to Internet travel purchase and how they believe they have changed their behavior, specifically about the impact of their search process on fare levels. Interviewees identified increased "breadth of search" and "control" as the primary benefits of the switch to Internet purchase channels, believing that lower fares are a by-product of broader and more thorough search. Several respondents also described new social and search involvement behaviors, enabled by the Internet, which seem to have increased the diligence of their search. That said, more than half of respondents described very simple one-or-two-step search strategies, and all used simpler search protocols than they knew were available, supporting the behavior of Cognitive Lock-In, perhaps moderated by Frequent Flyer Program status, geography and gender.
Keywords
airlines
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Brunger, William J., "The Impact of the Internet on Airline Fares: How the Customer Viewed the Transition to Internet Distribution" (2006). Student Scholarship. 457.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/457