At Eye For Travel, Social Media for Travel Conference today the hallways are buzzing with the Expedia announcement that

Expedia has lowered their booking fees to zero through May 31, 2009. More than a few people have suggested this an act of aggression towards one of their main competitors, Orbitz.

I just spoke with Vela McClam Mitchell, CEO of Market Designs. She was the former WorldSpan executive who negotiated some of the original deals for Expedia and Orbitz.  In her opinion, “the battle is on between Expedia and Orbitz.  She is convinced Barney Harford, CEO of Orbitz can rise to the challenge. He understands how to lower his costs by negotiating fee structures with TravelPort and can pass these onto the consumer. The question is, can he move fast enough.”

I also spoke briefly with an Orbitz executive who stated, “they were not at all surprised by the announcement from Expedia and were even expecting it.”

We will see how this shakes out for the traveler.  In these turbulent times, the lower the travel fees, the more likely the consumer is to travel and that benefits all of us.