Orbitz. Gulp! Another attempt at a brief but helpful review of on-line services.
Written: Dec 26 '01 (Updated Dec 26 '01)
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Well, I must be a glutton for punishment because here I am reviewing another on line service. I am feeling a little anxious because Epinions wants me to be brief (check out their guidelines for rating on line stores and services), but I have already exceeded their minimum count of 20 words and I have told you nothing so far. So, forgive me for being too wordy, I will try to be short without skipping the important decision helping details.
My husband and I plan to visit a relative in Florida in January 2002. I particularly want to fly with Delta because I am very close to being able to get free travel with my frequent flyer miles and unless I can save a lot of cash, I would like a non-stop flight.
I decided to shop some sites for the best price. I visited Hotwire, Travelselect, Expedia, and Orbitz to comparison shop. I found that of the four, Orbitz was the second easiest to use and had the best fares.
My experiences with all three of these sites were limited only to shopping for the best price on airline tickets. Orbitz also offers help with hotels, cars (that means rentals), cruises, and travel packages. I did check out these services and they looked relatively easy to use. Each category asked you to fill in blanks and choose dates in order to see the list of available travel products.
In the “flights” category I filled in the blank and was rewarded with a grid of several different airlines and the lowest airfare for each, based upon whether one is willing to accept nonstop or flights with layovers. The site’s default setting automatically lists all of the options offered by the lowest priced airline at the bottom of the screen. Delta was not the lowest fare, but I could click a
Delta icon and get linked to the list of flights from them.
Orbitz listed the non-stop Delta flight from La Guardia Airport in New York to Fort Lauderdale at the most convenient times for me as $149 per person, round trip (this includes a $5 service fee). Hotwire claimed to have a flight for $152, but it would not tell me on which airline and the times of departure unless I gave them payment information. Travelselect claimed to have a flight for $110, but it had layovers and transfers and I couldn’t figure out how to get a non-stop or direct route from them. Expedia was even easier to use than Orbitz, allowing me to fill in search parameters that included airline, time, and non-stop options. They came up with the exact same itinerary as Orbitz, however, they were charging $155 PLUS a $10 service fee (which they would have waived since it was my first time buying from them).
All of the sites appear to offer search features similar to Orbitz, but only Expedia, which was slightly more expensive, was actually easier to use. They all appear to penalize you if you make a reservation and want to change or cancel it, even if it is within a day of making it.
Just for the heck of it, I decided to call Delta directly to see what they offered. I played dumb and let them make suggestions for my itinerary. They came up with the exact same itinerary as Orbitz for $155, with no extra fees. This is only $6 dollars more than Orbitz’s $149, I didn’t have to do any searching at all, and they were willing to hold seats for my husband and me until midnight the next day. I decided to go with Delta directly, it was worth the extra $6.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
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