Jared Blank offers a basic point that I was too dense to see. Priceline acquired Travelweb, the hotel booking service, for the same reason they began offering retail airfare — so that they could sell travel to consumers whose bids failed.
They don’t expect consumers to start at Priceline for their retail travel, but they don’t need to lose all of their customers who are unsuccessful with their opaque bidding product.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
