I am looking for affiliate programs, that pay a commission on flight
ticket sales when the buyer originates from a link on my website. The
flights must originate from the USA (domestic and or international),
so it will probably be American affiliate programs.

I want at least 4 affiliate programs which are directly linked to a
major Airline company, for example the Delta Airlines affiliate
program (should it exist?).
I want at least 20 affiliate programs which are linked to an online
travel agent, for example the www.expedia.com affiliate program.
The affiliate programs may be operated by the linked company itself or
by an affiliate marketing company like www.cj.com

Please provide me with the name and url of the company that sells the
tickets.
Please provide me with the url of the company that hosts the affiliate
program (if not the same).Preferably linking directly to the page
giving info about the specific program.

---

Request for Question Clarification by robertskelton-ga on 02 Dec 2002 15:33 PST

Are you aware that American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United
joined forces to form Orbitz, which has an affiliate program? I can
probably find 20 travel agent affiliate programs, but I don't believe
I could find 4 for airlines outside of the Orbitz alliance.

Orbitz Partners
http://www.orbitz.com/App/about/about_partners.jsp

---

Request for Question Clarification by tar_heel_v-ga on 02 Dec 2002 15:35 PST

None of the major airlines offer direct affiliate programs.  Will a
listing of other airline/travel related affiliate programs suffice as
an answer?

Regards,

-THV

---

Clarification of Question by robknows-ga on 02 Dec 2002 23:43 PST

Thanks for your research,

Although some companies are combined in orbitz, they might still may
have their own program. Delta has it's own program on linkshare.
http://www.linkshare.com/clients/index.shtml

If you have really checked everything and can't find the 4 programs
that point to 1 major Airline company, I'll lower the target, but you
have to spend some time on that!

Good luck

Hi there,

As I expected, apart from Delta I was unable to find any US airline,
major or not, with their own affiliate scheme. These are the ones I
checked, by browsing their sites, and searching their sites for
keywords like "partner" and "affiliate".

Belong to Orbitz:

Alaska Airlines / Horizon Air
Aloha Air
America West
American Airlines
Continental
Hawaiian Airlines
Midwest Express
Northwest
Spirit
United
US Airways

Other US airlines:

Air Wisconsin
AirTran
Allegheny 
Allegiant
ATA
Atlantic Coast Airlines
Great Plains
Jet Blue
Sky West
SouthWest
Trans States

Here are online travel agencies that sell flights originating in the
USA, which have affiliate schemes:

------------------
Trip.com
http://www.trip.com/
Orbitz
http://www.orbitz.com
Delta
http://www.delta.com

All three use Linkshare
http://www.linkshare.com

------------------

One Travel
http://www.onetravel.com
Travelocity
http://www.travelocity.com
Expedia
http://www.expedia.com

All three use BeFree
http://reporting.net/

------------------

4airlines
http://www.4airlines.com
Cheap Airlines
http://www.CheapAirlines.com
Economy Travel
http://www.economytravel.com
Smarter Living
http://www.SmarterLiving.com
Sky Auction
http://www.skyauction.com
Taca
http://www.taca.com

All six use Commission Junction
http://cj.com

------------------

Airfare Planet
http://www.airfareplanet.com/cg.htm
CheaperTrip
http://www.cheapertrip.com/

Both use ClixGalore
http://www.clixgalore.com/

------------------

Hotwire
http://www.hotwire.com/index.jsp
Hotwire Affiliates
http://www.hotwire.com/affiliates/index.jsp?v=1

PriceLine
http://www.priceline.com
PriceLine Affiliates
http://www.priceline.com/affiliates/default.asp

Asia TravelMart
http://www.asiatravelmart.com
Asia TravelMart Affiliates
http://www.asiatravelmart.com/index.cfm?id=n&ud=n&pid=n&pl=n&mpmpl=n&mmd=n&crc=USD&a=1&c=0&I=0&rc=ot&cr=ot&st=ot&ct=ot&tb=7&menu=epartner

Travel Now
http://www.travelnow.com
Travel Now Affiliates
http://affiliate.travelnow.com/affiliates/home.jsp

One Travel
http://www.onetravel.com/
One Travel Affiliates
http://partner.onetravel.com/index.cfm

Expedia
http://www.expedia.com
Expedia Affiliates
http://www.expedia.com/daily/associates/default.asp

VIP Fares
http://www1.vipfares.com/
VIP Fares Affiliates
http://www1.vipfares.com/affiliate/

Travel Worm
http://www.travelworm.com/
Travel Worm Affiliates
http://www.travelworm.com/about/about_affiliates.asp

Air Gorilla
http://www.cheapairfaretickets.net/
Air Gorilla Affiliates

Aloha Hawaii Vacation
http://www.aloha-hawaii-vacation.com/
ClickXchange
http://www.clickxchange.com/


Search Strategy
---------------

Personal knowledge (I am an affiliate with most of the above)

Yahoo Directory
http://au.dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/Travel_and_Transportation/Online_Booking/


I trust this answers your question. If any portion of my answer is
unclear, please ask for clarification.

Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 03 Dec 2002 05:53 PST

Oops! 

Please ignore Air Gorilla (near the bottom of my answer) - it's an
editing error and shouldn't be there.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by robknows-ga on 03 Dec 2002 08:40 PST

Thanks you answered my question, since you work with them, I have one
last request.Could you also rank me a top 5 or top 10? Any other hints
or tips you can give me?

Robert van den Berg

---

Clarification of Answer by robertskelton-ga on 03 Dec 2002 14:34 PST

My Picks
--------

1. Travel Now
2. Asia TravelMart
3. Expedia
4. Orbitz
5. One Travel
6. Priceline
7. Hotwire


It really depends on how much effort you wish to put in:


Text Links
----------

Either select one site that would please your visitors the most, or
list many of them as a mini-directory. To be fair to your visitors,
and to help your ranking at Google, include some quality travel sites
that you are not affiliated with. Affiliate links generally do not
help your Google ranking.


Search Boxes
-------------

Travel Now, Travelocity and Expedia each offer affiliates a search
form, allowing visitors to your site to enter dates and places,
departure and destination. Rather than clicking on a link that goes
who-knows-where, your visitor can begin the booking process from your
site. In my experience search boxes will give you the best return from
minimal effort.


Complete Websites
-----------------

The problem here is that, except for a logo at the top, your site is
most likely going to be the same as many others. The trick is to
specialize. If you had a popular scuba diving website, you could
create a travel service aimed at scuba divers. If you have a website
about a single geographical location, you can provide an in-depth
travel service just for the one place. These work best as their own
website, not as pages within your current site.

Asia TravelMart and OneTravel offer co-branded, customisable websites.

Travel Now has the tools, including XML feeds, to provide everything
on your site except for the final confirmation and payment.

If I Had to Choose One
----------------------

Travel Now. From simple links to complete websites, they cover it.
Their reporting is great. They are cheap.

This "inside" information saves me a lot of research.It is important
to get help from somebody that is familiar with the subject.Thanks for
your help.