My job is to book travel for credit cardholders who have earned points and wish to redeem their points. We can only book flights, car rentals and hotel rooms within our booking system. All of the fares and rates we get are based on published fares and rates from the airlines, car rental agencies and hotels.
The bane of our existence are all of these travel web sites that you see advertised all the time-- Expedia, Hotwire, Orbitz, Travelocity and probably several others that don’t come to mind at a moment. The reason these web sites piss me off is because callers often refer to flights on these web sites showing lower fares than what we can offer. Often times they will either show the fares as based only on one-way travel, or they may not be showing up front the taxes and other fees that get piled on, whereas the numbers we quote to our callers always do include the taxes.
Another thing these web sites do is will put together itineraries that involve mixed carriers in order to get a lower fare, which we do not book for a variety of reasons unless there is no other way to do it. Booking mixed carriers potentially introduces more cans of worms than what would be found in a bait shop. Too many things can go wrong when using two separate airlines whose flights are not code-shared. I’m sure there are some other issues with flights booked through one of these web sites that people don’t learn about until it’s too late, but I’ve never heard of them.
What I am getting at is, what are your experiences with using these web sites? I’m not necessarily only looking for stories about people’s negative experiences, but it would be nice to have some firepower to use against people who compare us to these web sites.
I’ll just say that I’ve never had any major problems using these sites but if I want to visit a secondary city in the US, usually Cleveland I’ll check ALL the sites I can think of. They often have a wide variety of fares and interim cities. So for example you can go DUB -> CLE via Philadelphia, NYC, Newark, Boston, Chicago, BWI all with different airlines and fares. My main criticism is that the sites don’t compare with each other, you have to hunt for best fares.
I travel twice every year from here to the US with my two kids and have done so since they were born starting almost a decade ago (though for the first four years the trip was going in the other direction). I love travel websites, use them a great deal, and have yet to encounter a problem. They only show one way fares if you ask for a one way price. No one has ever shown me a mixed carrier fare, except when it was a fare involving rail to air fares or something similar.
Sometimes I have found a fare on one of the travel sites and then booked it through the airline, as the airline sites often have better availability for whatever reason, and I have to book three together.
The US sites do not usually include taxes and airport fees except when you get to the total price which is annoying, since they can easily double the actual cost; the Dutch and Euro sites usually do include them. But the US ones say right on the site that this is fare only and taxes and so on are additional. I expect this could be a problem for people who don’t get just how much more the taxes and fees add.
So I don’t know what to tell you, if there are issues with booking through travel sites (other than small travel companies that go belly up, but that’s another kind of site entirely) I have never heard of them either. No ammo here. The only way I know of to improve on using these sites is to use a consoldator, but that’s another kettle o’fish.
Now, points programs are a huge pain in the butt and really not worth the trouble, I gave up on them years ago.
The sites are great for comparing various airlines’ options.
And I’ve never found a non-pubished flight there. Usually, when I’ve found a flight on one of the sites, I can go directly to the airline’s site and find the same flight for the exact same price or slightly less than on Expedia/Travelocity/etc.
The only one that I get mixed airlines on is Orbitz, and I can select not to use multiple carriers if I’m worried about that.
There’s a site called Kayak.com that gives you results from all the major travel websites as well as the airlines’ own websites. Very useful.
When I went to Bozeman, MT, this May, which is a small airport only served by a few carriers, I got a lot of results on travel websites that used multiple carriers or would not tell you the airline, and I was very leery of those. Fortunately, Northwest Airlines (RIP) had a nonstop flight on their website which was cheaper than any of them. Cheaper than Delta’s, too, and I’m pretty sure it was the same flight!
I’ve also used Hotwire and Priceline for hotels and car rentals. They are excellent for that, though if you go for their opaque services (the best deals) you have to be able to live with their restrictions. They main thing is that you don’t know what hotel you get until after your credit card is charged.
I have used Expedia a lot, and I can only report good experiences. It has never let me down yet. Any time I need a flight somewhere or a hotel, I’ve been able to find what I want on Expedia, and there has never been any problem with the paperwork or the logistics (i.e. I’ve never turned up somewhere and been met with the ‘Sorry, we have no record of that…’ problem).
Overall, I’d say the site offers more cost savings with regard to accommodation than flights. With flights, Expedia is good at finding the cheapest options, but there may only be a few possibilities and sometimes there just isn’t much price variation. However, when looking for hotels and places to stay, there seems to be much more room for manoeuvre, and Expedia can make a huge difference. There are times when I have been genuinely astounded at the bargains I’ve been able to find. During a recent stay in Toronto, I was able to find a really terrific, high-quality, centrally-located hotel with excellent facilities, and the room cost next to nothing.
One site I have learned to avoid is LastMinute. Here in the UK this site is very heavily promoted, and for many years was the media’s favourite example of a successful, thriving survivor from the dot.com boom. I have had some bad experiences with it. The site makes extravagant claims about cost savings, but in my experience it doesn’t find the same excellent bargains as Expedia or Travelocity. Also, it sometimes suggests buying ‘blind’, i.e. they say ‘Here’s a really great hotel bargain but we can’t tell you what and where it is until after you’ve paid’. I have no use for this kind of gambling. Tell me what’s on offer and I’ll decide whether I want to buy it. In addition, they don’t seem as efficient when it comes to the paperwork and IT. I had a bad experience trying to check out of a hotel in Kuala Lumpur because there was a lengthy argument about whether or not I had already paid for the room. This arose because LastMinute’s own paperwork was vague and unclear - leaving both myself and the hotel somewhat unsure as to what had been charged, when, and by whom.
What websites are people using that don`t include fees and taxes? A quick look shows that both Priceline and Kayak show all fees. Orbitz and Travelocity do as well. I was actually under the impression that sites in the USA are required to show these fees. I know that some sites in Japan (where I currently am) do not, but the same site, based in the US, does. It does seem to be the law in the EU. Whether or not it is the law in the US it does seem to be the custom.
Furthermore, the sites certainly do not include one way flights unless you are specifically ask for them! And besides, what one way flight is going to be *cheaper *than a two way flight? My one way flight from Tokyo to the USA costs $2000, whereas my two way flight from the USA to Tokyo and back (one month later) costs $800. There are many other things affecting those prices, but still. Isnt it fairly common knowledge that one way flights are more expensive? Your customers may be trying to scam you by showing cheaper one way flights instead, but it isnt the travel sites fault. Of course, sometimes the cheap flights will be at inconvenient times or have long or annoying layovers, but that is only to be expected and budget travelers are unlikely to care about those kinds of things.
I have booked all my tickets through these kinds of sites ever since I started flying, and have never had any problems–so can`t help you there, sorry.
I’ve often found the two-way flight to be the sum of the prices of the one-way flights. It depends on the routes/airlines/timing. It’s easy to just buy a two-way and not use the second half if you see a large price difference.
Typically when I book air travel, I just go directly through American Airlines’ website. I haven’t encountered a website yet that has been able to give me the kind of flexibility and good prices that I get that way, and AA has always treated me pretty nice.
I’ve had good experiences with travel sites – I think I’ve used Hotwire the most, as well as Travelocity, Expedia once or twice, and back in the day, Priceline. If I’m just looking for flights, it tends to be easier to go straight to the airlines’ own sites, where it’s easier to see exactly what you’re getting, but if I’ll also need a car or hotel, I seem to find better package deals on the travel sites. Stands to reason. I particularly like being able to click through to customer reviews of various hotel options. All that info is out there elsewhere, but the travel sites are convenient.
All that said – travel sites can be disappointing in that they tout fantastic deals that frequently turn out not to be available for me for whatever reason. In particular, I used to get emails whenever prices changed on places I go to frequently… but the best deals never quite materialized. If all I did was look at the hyped deal prices before calling you, I might have an inaccurate idea of what was reasonable.
I travel several times a year on business, and I have used Travelocity almost every time. Frankly, your OP strikes me as a serious case of sour grapes. Any time I book a trip on Travelocity, the extra fees (if any) are clearly indicated beforehand, and it’s quite simple to ensure and verify that your trip is *round-*trip with a single carrier.
I use Travelocity and Orbitz for all of my traveling and I have no complaints. I agree with the other posters who have said that the fees are always shown up front. Anyone who’s complaining that they have “hidden” fees is a moron anyway. AFAICT, the only companies that hide fees are the airlines themselves - I’ve seen incredibly stupid shit like $30 airfare, with a $200 fee tacked on. Um, yeah, not gonna fall for that one.
I don’t personally have any experience with them but there was a caveat emptor piece on them via the television news the other day. While I wasn’t listening close, I believe I did get the jist of it. Basically they said that the refunds that many of these sites promise if a cheaper deal becomes available later are subject to a number of strict regulations; they’re only in play if they occur within 24 hours of your booking, only if made through that same travel site, etc. They way they made it sound it was not something that happens very easily.
I’m subscribed to a number of frequent flier/hotel points/travel points/miles earning programs. My loyalty is to whoever provides me the best price. Let me breakdown how my SO and I just booked a trip to Europe for 10 days which includes non-stop flight from Minneapolis-St Paul, car rental, and hotels for under $1K total.
1)The flight: We have been flying all around the last couple years. We did a split jaw to Beijing and returned from Shanghai (and took Air China to get between the two). We flew Sun Country to Jamaica, NWA to JFK and took Air India from there to Delhi and back. We took Iceland Air to Amsterdam and then Egypt Air to Cairo for our tour of that country and booked both flights a month apart. This website has been a helpful resource for finding flights (login as guest). The one thing I’ve seen with those who purchase via Orbitz/Expedia/Travelocity et al, is sometimes shorter than good layovers. The city, country, and time of year are huge factors of how long it should be, especially when flying multiple carriers. Some of these don’t take that into account (and some stupid travelers think that 30 minutes would be enough at a large airport when then don’t realize how huge a terminal can be). We’ve always gone for the lowest price even though we most likely would earn the most miles from NWA since it was pretty much the only carrier here. Still, despite all that diversity, we managed to rack up 60K miles each and with some tedious slogging through NWA’s website, we managed to book 2 non-stop roundtrip tickets to Amsterdam. The cost: $60 each for taxes.
2)The car: I’m a member of AAA and USAA. I have a variety of credit cards, a fistful of coupons, and a lot of time to hunt around. The best deal didn’t involve any of those things, in fact, using the special “discounts” that those provided were more expensive than booking directly through Hertz.com’s website. A 9 day car rental with taxes was $182.
3)The hotel: While we’re looking for a great deal, we won’t book blindly. For some reason, some people think that a 4 star hotels is going to be better than a three star. The stars are there for amenities and not for its quality. I could give two poops if there is an onsite masseuse or swimming pool or rooftop heliport. A CLEAN, SAFE room is what I want. That starts with a search through tripadvisor.com’s reviews. If the hotel is good, tripadvisor can open multiple windows to travel sites listing their prices for the exact same room for the exact same nights and sometimes show HUGE price differences. That’s how we got to stay in Paris for $64 a night, Delft for $70, Bruges for $80, (all with free parking). and Amsterdam for $135 (we “splurged” on this last one since we didn’t have to get parking and we’re staying one block from Centraal). Total with taxes for all hotels: $675
$120
$182
$675 $977 for flight, car, and hotel. (I’m frankly quite proud of doing this so cheaply).
So back to the OP. The question shouldn’t be “what bad things can we say about travel sites” but it should be “what can we provide that they can’t?”
I recently booked an Int’l trip , and I tried expedia and travelocity. I noticed right away that expedia did not have nearly as many options for the same trip as travelocity, so I focused on travelocity.
After a while of finding the perfect flight, I was disappointed when it said, “sorry, this flight is no longer available”. Well then why did it list it in the results?? I tried a few other flights similar to the one I wanted, and they all said, “not available” or “no longer available at that price” - with the true price being about 1,000 dollars more than listed. In the end, I went to American Airlines site directly and found a suitable flight.
I really like kayak.com for checking flights. It gives the total fare including fees and also lets you search among the different discount sites. I’ve always found that the direct airline websites have the cheapest flights but usually Orbitz, et al., are only a couple dollars more. I don’t travel a lot myself but I book flights for my boss. Once I was trying to book a flight through the airline’s website for her that only had a couple seats left and the time I got her approval, it had sold out. However, I was still able to book that flight on Orbitz for only a couple dollars more.
Also, I used priceline’s bidding feature for the first time today for my trip to London next month and got the Hilton Islington for almost half the cost than if I had gone through them directly. Of course, I can’t cancel this for any reason but I will have to be deathly ill before not going on this trip and if I am, then I’ll have more important things to worry about than a couple hundred dollars.
I have had bad a bad experience with Travelocity. We booked our flight from Seattle to Oakland in December, flight to happen in May. Seattle to Oakland Friday evening, Oakland to Seattle Monday evening.
In March, they sent me an email saying our Monday flight had been rescheduled from 7pm to 6pm. No worries - it’s a 2 hour flight, we just get to the airport a little earlier.
In April, they sent me an email saying our Monday flight had been rescheduled from 6pm to 7pm. Ok - the airline goofed and changed the flight time back.
The Tuesday before our flight, they sent me an email saying our Monday flight had been rescheduled from 7pm to 7am. Wait, what? 7am.
I check the airline website. There is still a flight at 7pm. I call Travelocity. Why have I been changed to the 7am flight? “That’s what you booked.” Um… no it’s not. I booked the 7pm flight. Can I send you the confirmation email I received, plus the three change notifications I received, including the email I just got saying it changed from 7pm to 7am? Nope, no, sorry, can’t help you. I can sell you a ticket on the 7pm flight, though… for $150 more than what the airline is currently asking. Not only can’t they help me, but the associate tells me four times that I have “a really nice voice. You should talk for a living.”
I call the airline. They can’t help me, of course, because I booked with a “travel agent”. I end up buying a one-way ticket from them for the cheaper price.
The thing you have to understand, and this will help with your frustration, is that those sites exist to sell the seats and the rooms the hotel can’t otherwise sell.
The sites don’t exist to get you a good deal, they exist to sell the leftovers.
It’s like if you want to go to the Rainbow Room or 21 in NYC. Is the experience you want just to say you’ve been there or do you want a good meal too?
I’ve worked with hotels and airlines, and to them people who pay full fares or at least their advertised sales are their customers, a person who books through Hotwire is Hotwire’s clients not theirs.
To use those sites effectively you need extreme flexibility and you have to read, and I mean READ CAREFULLY, everything on the site.
If you have any disability or special needs don’t use those sites, they won’t work well for you.
Each airline and hotel has certain things that prevent them from having perfect sales. They take these unsellable things and give the to someone else to sell. This is why you have all these “weird” combinations.