Described is a system and method for matching a customer's offer for
travel services with quotes from providers of those travel services in a
way that allows the providers to negotiate preferential treatment. An
online travel service exchanger receives an offer from a customer for
travel services, such as airfare. The online travel service exchanger
attempts to satisfy the customer's offer by retrieving from a global
distribution system one or more quotes for the identified travel
services. Rather than merely requesting quotes from randomly selected
airlines, the online travel service exchanger first requests quotes from
one preferred airline at a time in descending order of preference until
the offer is satisfied. If no preferred airline satisfies the offer, the
online travel service exchanger may request quotes from a group of
non-preferred airlines. The online travel service exchanger then
satisfies, if possible, the offer with one of the quotes from the
non-preferred airlines.