The OTA rebooking trap in travel disruptions

When flights are cancelled, travelers who booked through online travel agencies often find themselves caught between airlines and booking platforms

Major travel disruptions such as the recent Iran war have highlighted a persistent problem in global travel distribution: the complexity of rebooking flights purchased through online travel agencies (OTAs). When flights are cancelled or changed, passengers frequently face uncertainty about who is responsible for rebooking or issuing refunds. While OTAs and airlines both provide customer support, their overlapping roles can create delays and confusion for travelers during crises. The result is a fragmented customer experience that exposes structural weaknesses in how travel distribution is organized.

Key takeaways

• Responsibility often sits with the original booking channel: When travelers purchase a flight through an OTA, the agency typically controls the reservation until the traveler checks in, meaning changes or cancellations usually need to be handled through the booking platform rather than directly with the airline.
• Passengers are frequently redirected between airlines and OTAs: During major disruptions, travelers often report being told by airlines to contact the booking platform while the platform directs them back to the airline, creating frustrating rebooking loops.
• OTA support systems struggle during large disruptions: Even though major platforms have improved refund and rebooking processes since the pandemic, sudden surges in customer requests during crises still overwhelm support teams and create long wait times.
• Policy differences between airlines create additional complexity: Airlines often adopt different waiver policies during disruptions, such as broad fee waivers or rolling eligibility windows, making it difficult for OTAs to provide clear and consistent rebooking options.
• The OTA layer adds operational friction: Because bookings involve both the airline operating the flight and the agency issuing the ticket, any change requires coordination between multiple systems, which can slow down ticket reissuance and refunds.
• Industry guidance increasingly favors direct airline bookings: Travel experts frequently recommend booking flights directly with airlines, particularly for international trips, because disruptions can often be resolved faster when only one provider manages the reservation.
• Crisis events expose weaknesses in travel distribution infrastructure: Large-scale disruptions reveal how fragmented the travel ecosystem remains, with airlines, OTAs, and customer service systems struggling to coordinate effectively when millions of passengers attempt to rebook at once.

Source: Skift, The Points Guy

Enjoying this analysis? Hospitality.today delivers daily insights on hotel distribution, AI trends, and travel commerce — straight to your inbox. Subscribe for free at Hospitality.today →