When to use and avoid Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia
Online travel agents like Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity and Expedia are handy, touchy-feely tools that many Internet users find useful when booking hotel and airline reservations. It's important to keep in mind, though, that these tools are travel agents, and just like the travel agent down at the local strip mall, they take a commission from any booking you make. Conversely, since airlines control inventory, they should have the best idea of what prices and volumes they have and 99% of the time will offer the best price. Most airlines even have best price guarantees to promote this.There are, however, instances in which an online travel agent are useful. In addition to the easy-to-use interfaces, areas in which the TA might help are if they were to:
- Have negotiated a discount (ie, corporate or consolidator) with the airline. In this case you need to pay particular attention to the fare class that you're booked in; many consolidator tickets, for example, some from airfare.com or your local Chinatown TA don't qualify for frequent flyer miles.
- Combine a series of tickets into one itinerary. For example, last April when I was trying to find a cheap ticket to Buenos Aires I checked all of the canonical search engines and could only find tickets for 1100$. Orbitz, however came up with a price that was 300$ cheaper. Why? Because they found a fare sale between Washington DC and Argentina on Delta and nested it into a regular Northwest DTW-WAS 100$ flight. Result? Net savings of three hundred bucks. Typically, standard airlines wont search and book outside of their service, so their websites can't do this.
Filed under: Transportation, Budget Travel, Internet Tools
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_thumbnail.jpg "Soulard Mardi Gras: St. Louis, Missouri")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jan 31st 2008 @ 5:42PM
John in KS said...
We always look thru all the sources to find ticket prices, once we have the lowest price we call that airline and check the prices, we usually can get a better fare thru them. also check off shore carriers. They usually have cheaper fares, better seating, non-stop flights and cleaner planes. Good Luck
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Jan 31st 2008 @ 6:07PM
Robin said...
I'm an online shopper for the best airline tickets but shoppers beware when you book a flight through travelocity or other online agents, remember to check your seating, they can tend to forget that part and you are stuck in the airport waiting for another flight because they forgot to asign you a seat, also check the airport your leaving from to make sure your flight time is correct.
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Feb 2nd 2008 @ 12:28PM
Hank said...
I check the multiple travel sites,than check the airlines,
on line,find the best price,usually less than the
travel sites.Get an e-mail ticket,save $$$. Also get my
bparding pass. Never had a problem,alsp always got
seat of my choice.
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Mar 5th 2008 @ 3:21AM
Peter Catterick said...
Avoid Orbitz AT ALL COSTS.Had good experience with Travelocity and Expedia. Had to re issue tickets because they had put in wrong return dates on an international site. cost to me $968 EXTRA. Their customer service took over an hour to reply with a weak answer. terrible company.
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Apr 4th 2008 @ 12:58PM
Marla said...
I am a Vacation Travel Specialist or in your words a travel agent. It is true that we as agents get commissions on hotels and cars, but this does not cost the client anymore than if they book it themselves. Agents do charge a ticketing fee on airline tickets because lets face it noone works for free, but this price is based on each agents own discretion. All internet companies and airlines directly charge this fee also. At the agency that I work for being The Travel Solution, my mother owns this business and has for 9 years. Our clients have used the internet at one time or another, and have always called us and told us that they will NEVER make this mistake again, as we are a very personalized agency that cares for all of our clients as if they were family. This is why we have a successful business. I do not understand why people would want to spend their time shopping the internet, when they can call a travel agency such as ours and let us do the work for you at a minimal price.
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Jul 3rd 2008 @ 6:51AM
online said...
Marla, yes a travel agency will find the best price plus an extra 10, sometimes 5 per ticket. I can do this myself, but not everyone.
I suppose in the very near future almost everyone will fly on e-tickets, and will do the bookiing online. Orbitz and travelocity are too expensive usualy, expedia seemed to change the policy offering sometimes better prices. I use kayak.com, sidestep.com, smartertravel.com etc, have to check my links or book through airlines directly, if using just one airline.
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Jul 3rd 2008 @ 10:15AM
Brenda said...
To add to what Marla said. The general public is under the misconception that travel agents will cost them more. Yes, many will charge you a ticketing fee if you are just wanting to book an airline ticket only, but for everything else, the customer does not pay the agent, the supplier does, at no additional cost to the customer. Often the customer will get more for their money, or upgrades and perks, because of the supplier/customer relationship. But money aside, there is nothing like having an expert on your side, working for you. I've heard nightmare stories from people who booked cruises or large trips with complicated itineraries on some of those huge online sites. Shop for a travel agent like you would anything else. Ask them about their experience and how much they've traveled, look for professional certifications, (CTA, CTC, CTIE) and affliations with ASTA, CLIA, IATA etc.
Happy Travels!
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