A beautiful white elephant
Written: Dec 11 '01
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The Bottom Line
Beautiful, smooth, web site for all your travel needs. It has everything except it doesn't work and customer service is nonexistent.
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Expedia is Microsoft's offering to the online travel world. It has been so successful that it is now an independent company, although the Microsoft influence is still obvious. You can use Microsoft's .Net Passport to sign up to the site and the range of services offered is huge. You can access flights, hotels, rental cars, vacations, cruises, and a host of information, and it is all available in the US, Canada, and major European countries (not France).
I have used Expedia many times to search for flight availability, but only dabbled in the other areas. It has always been smooth sailing. The interface works well in all the browsers I have tried, something MSN and many others should take note of. The search areas are well designed and intuitive. They provide the ability to quickly search for flights on different dates as well as the ability to control details such as flight connections and preferred airlines.
The other areas of the site are always available through tabs at the top of the screen and tools in the left panel. The ads at the very top are just something you'll have to deal with in your own way. Elsewhere you will also find little ad banners somewhat appropriate to the things you are searching for. All pretty much par for the course. I can't say much about the hotels and vacations services, but some of the tools are very useful. The map tool is not unique to Expedia, but it is very well designed.
If you have signed up to Expedia, necessary to make any bookings, then your information will all be available in the future. Trips you have researched can be saved as itineraries, and then repeated in the future. I'm sure this is more useful to business travellers than leisure, but it helped me get to the things I wanted faster.
So with all these things going for it, you might be starting to wonder why I only give Expedia one star. There are a few niggles you might come across. I don't think Expedia is good at finding real discount rates. I travel mostly on international flights and a good travel agent can usually beat Expedia's price. Car rentals seem to be outrageously priced and I've never gone near them. They offer to remember your credit card number for you, but this seems a really dumb thing for anyone to do and I couldn't find much information about how they safeguard your security. I would recommend you avoid this feature.
Now to the main reason I recommend you don't book with Expedia. Its just too risky. I have attempted to make three flight reservations with Expedia and purchase one round-trip ticket. In all three cases, the cost of my flight was changed between the time I did the initial search and the time I completed the reservation, no more than a few minutes each time. This convinces me that the information held by Expedia is not reliable. A more cynical person might believe that they are touting completely unavailable fares just to lure you into the booking process.
On one fateful occasion I was foolish enough to accept the raised price and saved a reservation. I was given until midnight the following day to purchase the ticket. I was also warned that the price was not guaranteed until purchased, something I have never had a problem with through any other supplier online or off. The next day I returned to purchase the tickets. They were sitting nicely in my itinerary and I was even allowed to select my preferred seats from plane layout diagrams. After doing this for 4 flight segments and entering my credit card details, I was told that there was a problem with the system. It was suggested that I try again later and I was given a number to call if problems persisted as well as an online form to fill out for assistance, so I still felt fairly confident. I filled out the assistance form which said I would be contacted within 24 hours, although my reservations would be cancelled in about 8 hours. An hour later the problems persisted and I called the number. I was completely unable to get through until after office hours. Office hours? This is the internet bubba! Next day dawns and my reservations have been duly cancelled. Still no word from Expedia so I email some "feedback" To this date my only contact from customer support has been a standard reply saying that the matter is being looked into. I attempted to purchase the same flights again and they had nearly doubled in price. I left in disgust and I recommend you do the same.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Member: Ian Nartowicz
Location: Falls Church VA
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 55 members
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