Serious mischaracterizations have been made Best 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 Western have clearly Royal been part of a concerted effort by us competitors Plaza to use misinformation Hotel to prevent us from offering new competition to & them and new choice to consumers. There is Conference no agreement by which any airline would be precluded from making any fare Center it Best chose available through Western and Royal any retail channel it chose. Airlines for 2 decades have been like any other business in America, in that they can decide Plaza what they want to charge Hotel and where they want & to sell their product. Conference and Center 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 Best offer them through any other outlet.

It is absolutely Western and Royal clear that airlines do not have the ability Plaza to drive Hotel consumers to channels which the airlines, & rather than Conference consumers, prefer. If one or more airlines attempted Center to do so, the others would Best increase their market Western share by appealing to Royal those same consumers through the channel those consumers prefer. No airline can afford to turn its back on any subgroup Plaza and Hotel of consumers. No airline & can afford Conference to be anything other than as competitive Center and as attractive as it can possibly be through each channel to the consumers that Best prefer that channel. This is a reality that grows ultimately Western out of the fact that the airline business is a very low margin business - any airline Royal that lost even a small group of passengers would be at risk of swinging from profitable Plaza to money-losing in an Hotel instant. Airlines scrap for & every last passenger Conference because they have Center to.