Flight bookings on Internet suspended

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Expedia Inc. and Priceline.com Inc., the second- and third-largest Internet travel companies, suspended bookings for flights at least through Sunday as U.S. flights remained grounded for a second day.

Expedia said it was not accepting reservations for flights before Tuesday, while Priceline.com said bookings were only being accepted for flights departing after Sunday. Travelocity.com Inc. said reservations were available if airlines continued to show seats for sale.

As many as 40,000 flights were grounded for a second day Wednesday after hijacked airliners were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington yesterday. They were the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

"It's certainly not a good time for (Web travel services) right now; they're right in the thick of it," said Lorraine Sileo, an analyst with PhoCusWright Inc., an Internet travel research firm. "People are going to be more wary about traveling."

The three Internet travel services said they received a large number of calls and e-mail from customers who were stranded or needed to re-book flights. Each of the companies declined to comment on how the loss of bookings would affect sales or quarterly results.

The companies said customer refunds would be determined by individual airlines' policies.