Expedia: Any Company That Saves Me $1,000 Is A-OK In My Book
Written: Mar 31 '08
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You’ve probably heard of it before. You’ve probably seen one of its catchy commercials. You’ve probably seen it on your local travel agent’s computer screen. Heck, you’ve probably used it by now. Expedia.com is no secret, and this happened to be a good thing in my case. For an upcoming summer vacation that we are taking, we used Expedia.com to help us with some rather elaborate plans. My experience with Expedia was probably different from the normal user’s experience, so you may want to listen up. You may end up in my shoes one day, too.
So here was the situation: I needed tickets for two from New York to X, then from X to Cyprus (a Greek-speaking island in the Mediterranean, where my family hails from), then from Cyprus back to New York. The question that we asked ourselves was: “What the heck should X be?” We figured that since Cyprus is so close to beautiful parts of Europe, that we would check airfares and hotel rates to Barcelona, Venice, Rome, and Palma de Mallorca - all of which were destinations we would have liked to visit. Unfortunately, airfares to Venice and Mallorca were through the roof (not only on Expedia, but also on other search engines), and Barcelona and Rome did not offer any reasonable rates on hotels. In fact, the only decent hotel in Barcelona was $300/night, and that was not going to work out so nicely since we were planning on staying for at least five days.
Hmmm…so what to do now? Either the flights were too expensive, or the hotels were too expensive. Though Expedia does offer a program which allows you to couple hotels with flights in order to get better rates, we still could not find anything that was too affordable. This can probably be attributed to the rather low value of the dollar compared to the euro. Nonetheless, all prices on Expedia.com were listed in dollars, so I didn’t have to worry about conversion rates, etc. How nice!
OK, so Europe wasn’t exactly attractive at this point. I half-jokingly typed in Nairobi, Kenya, and found some amazing hotel rates - yet some very high airfares (thanks to the fact that there is hardly any airline competition in Kenya). In an act of desperation, I then typed in Dubai - a city that I have long wanted to visit, and one that my company does a lot of business with. And never in a thousand years did I expect to find what I did find: flights just above our budget, and hotels significantly cheaper than Spain and Italy.
Grab your credit card and go to town! I was so excited to find such amazing rates. The lowest airfare was $1675 per person - which, while expensive, is actually rather competitive considering that it included all taxes and fees, and it included the following flight: NYC (JFK) to Dubai, Dubai to Larnaca (Cyprus), and then Cyprus back to New York. While all flights require connections, it should be noted that non-stop flights were also available for purchase from New York to Dubai, but those flights were on Emirates Airways - which is known to be significantly more expensive than the competition.
Not to be outdone, hotel rates were just as competitive. While there is quite a range of hotel rates - Dubai has tons of hotels - I found many to be well within our budget. We ended up settling for the Hilton, which is on the beach, and is costing us $136 per night. For comparison’s sake, I found hotels as low as $84 per night and as high as $400+ per night. There were over ten pages of hotels to choose from, but pictures and details of amenities became scarcer as I went to the higher numbers - so I decided to stay within the selection of more detailed hotels.
The way Expedia sets up its flight and hotel selections is rather convenient and easy to use. The flights are listed on a page where you can see flight times, airlines, and total cost all on one page. To see further information - such as flight durations, aircraft type, etc. - you can select the itinerary and continue from there. The same thing basically goes for hotels. There is a small thumbnail picture as well as a small overview of the hotel, not to mention a listing of rates. To get further information of the hotel, simply click on it, and more detailed information about rates, amenities, location, and more pictures are available. I’m very content with the amount of information provided, and I didn’t have any anxiety about booking the hotel or airline reservations because of lack of details.
One thing that I would like to drive home is how easy Expedia made it for me to book this complex trip, and how much money they saved me. No, seriously. They made it so easy and so much cheaper. Had I attempted to do this through airlines’ and hotels’ websites, it would have taken me five times as long and would have cost me twice as much. The ability to book a three-legged flight journey with just one credit card transaction was great. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to book a hotel with the flights. For some reason, since we only needed a hotel for Dubai, and not Cyprus too (since we have family there), we had to book it separately. Nonetheless, this wasn’t a big deal, and we still got a great rate. For comparison’s sake, I did take a look at a few airlines’ websites to see how much they asked for the same itinerary, and most were asking in excess of $2,200 per person. So - essentially - Expedia saved me over $500 per person.
I’m glad to report that the financial transactions were very smooth. My AmEx was charged the correct amount - there were no surprises. Further, I was sent a confirmation e-mail immediately, and I also called the KLM, Gulf Air, and Hilton to ensure that there were no problems. I was also pleased that my seat reservations from Expedia were in sync with what the airlines’ computers’ said.
Expedia - as most people know - can basically provide you with flights and hotels in any destination. The only reason I did use the website, however, is because my trip was so complex. For a domestic flight or hotel reservation within the United States, I would probably not consider using this website - especially since a $10 transaction fee is processed. Further, I feel like I’m savvy enough to find low fares and rates through individual companies’ websites. However, in this particular case, Expedia saved me over $1,000, and I would not hesitate to use the website for other complex trips such as this one.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Flights and hotels
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