For the last year or so, I've noticed that roundtrip airfares are $5 more using Yahoo! Travel (powered by Travelocity) than using the airline's own Web site. In addition, sometimes the airline offers an additional incentive, like Delta's offering 1000 SkyMiles for purchasing a ticket through its site. So I've stopped buying tickets through anywhere except airline sites.

U.S. Airways seems to have caught on. Earlier this week, it pulled its entire ticket listing from Expedia, citing excessive middleman charges. This makes perfect sense. Why should anyone pay more when they can just go to the airline's own site for the same thing? The only exception would be for special last-minute travel packages where the middleman actually adds value in combining air fare, hotel and car rental fares for a lower overall price.