United, Buy.com to Open Travel Agency on Internet

Further expanding into the turf of travel agents, United Airlines Inc. and Aliso Viejo-based Buy.com Inc. said Monday they will open an online travel agency.

The new company, BuyTravel.com, is to launch later this year and would be a full-service online retail travel agency offering deeply discounted airline seats that United currently makes available only through its own Internet presence.

“To differentiate ourselves from other travel Web sites, we needed proprietary products from vendors,” said Allen Barbieri, Buy.com’s chief financial officer. “This way we can do everything that a travel agency can do, without a travel agency.”

Also on Monday, Continental Airlines said it will sell some of its excess tickets through Priceline.com, giving the Stamford, Conn.-based online firm access to almost half of all empty seats flown by major U.S. carriers.

Terms of the United-Buy.com joint venture were not disclosed, and its management has not yet been named. BuyTravel.com will be the eighth product category for Buy.com, whose strategy is to offer the lowest prices on everything it sells--even if it is at cost--and make money by selling advertising on its site.

For United, opening a travel agency would be a break from tradition in an industry that recently has had a rocky relationship with those who sell its products: travel agents.

Shares of United’s parent company, UAL Corp., rose $1.88 to close at $63.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.