Southwest has long shied away from participating in the large computer reservation systems like Galileo and Worldspan (though there has been some minor Sabre participation). That’s why you can’t book Southwest flights on, say, Expedia or Travelocity. Southwest even stopped filing its fares with the Airline Tariff Publishing Co. in order to prevent Orbitz from using the information.

Southwest managed to control the distribution of its tickets very effectively, moving most of its sales to its own website saving distribution costs in the process.

Now comes word that a new Galileo tool may make Southwest flights available.