Based on these findings, we offer general recommendations for how to design opaque packages for airline customers.
United Airlines and Orbitz are suing Skiplagged, a small startup founded by Aktarer Zaman that helps travelers hack the airlines' opaque pricing schemes to get better deals by finding so-called "hidden city" fares.
Jewish fear of Chávez mushroomed in 2007, when he entered into $20 billion worth of joint ventures with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including a shared bank and an airline with opaque operations that is frequented by Hezbollah terrorists.
Hotwire operates in a bargain-basement segment of the travel market known as the "opaque" market, because it sells airline tickets -- as well as hotel rooms and rental cars -- to people who do not know what company they will be traveling with until they have paid for their service.
We then empirically analyze the price levels set by airlines across transparent and opaque online travel agencies.
But one group of people has every right to be infuriated by those opaque surcharges: frequent fliers hoping to benefit from their airline loyalty.
There are more options available on the opaque sites as travel businesses find themselves with unsold rooms, empty airline seats or other inventory even on peak travel dates.
Mr. Nimoy, whose often inscrutable Vulcan character of Mr. Spock kept humans wondering about his true feelings, will probably represent Priceline's traditional "opaque" sales method, which leaves travel consumers guessing until the end which airline they are booking.
Hotwire was founded in 2000 by the Texas Pacific Group, an investment firm with a lot of travel experience, and a group of major airlines to compete with Priceline.com, the originator of the opaque model.
Notably, when Expedia sells packages, it does not break down the prices for airline tickets and hotels -- a practice known in the industry as opaque pricing.
