Travelocity saved me $10,000 on my first purchase and made a dark day less dark
Written: Apr 13 '10 (Updated Apr 13 '10)
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I became a customer of Travelocity.com in April of 1996 after the death of my mother. I had recently moved from Sweden to the United States (Wisconsin) when I got a phone call from my dad. My mother had passed away during the night American time. A couple of days later it was decided that the funeral was going to be held the following weekend which was coming up in a few days. Naturally I needed to come home to attend the funeral so I started calling the airlines.
Last minute prices were outrageous. Ticket prices were around $4,000 to $5,000 which becomes more than $12,000 for three people (I and my wife and son). I tried getting the special price for emergency situations that some airlines had but that did not work out. This was too much money for me. That was when a colleague of mine suggested that I check out a new web site Travelocity.com. I did and I got three tickets from Milwaukee to Sweden for under $2,000. Since then I've been a regular customer of Travelocity.com. Travelocity.com was founded in March of 1996.
Booking with Travelocity.com
One of the things that I think is convenient with Travelocity.com is that by using the home page of the web site you can search for and begin the purchase of hotels, rental cars, vacation packages, and flights. Not just with one airline but with any airline.
Under the "book my trip" tab you can select a starting location and a destination and a date. Then you specify if you want the exact date or if you are more flexible. Then you begin the search by pressing the "Search" button. Next you get a list of available departure flights sorted by price by default. However, you can sort by flight duration, departure time, arrival time and airline. At the top they display two tables, one featuring the cheapest non-stop flights and one featuring the cheapest flights of any kind. Travelocity typically have a lot available and I have bought ticket from them when the airlines said they were booked. You select the departure flight you want and then you select the return flight you want. If you are flying overseas you typically get to pick your seat. They also offer special deals on hotels as well as package deals at the time you book your flight.
Next you are shown your itinerary and you can decide on insurance and other things before you finalize the purchase using your credit card. If you have an account you login into your account. You can later return to your account and check the itinerary, confirmation numbers, Travelocity Trip ID, as well as past itineraries for flights that you already taken (up to 18 months). For example, one of the previous trips I bought from Travelocity was with Northwest Airlines from Dallas, Texas to Stockholm, Sweden in August of 2009. I paid $694.00 per person and I got the travel protection plan for $39.95. Actually, considering how much they pay you for an emergency evacuation an emergency landing would have been pretty sweet. They also list their phone number and email in case you need to contact them.
My opinion on the web site
I have used several web sites to book tickets, orbitz.com, expedia.com, airline web sites but the only web site that I think is really straightforward, logical and easy to use is the Travelocity.com web site. Perhaps that is because I have used it so many times but I think the search, select departure, select return, login/payment, confirm series of operations is quite straightforward. The web site is also not too busy. In addition it is nice that you can come back, login, and see your future and past itineraries and confirmation numbers by logging in on the front page. With respect to the difficulty level I would say that Travelocity.com is easier to use than most web sites including Amazon.com and ticketmaster.com.
They also have a feature called the Experience Finder which you can use to not only find flights and hotels but explore what there is to do at a destination. You can use this tool to customize your visit, see photographs and read descriptions and make a trip plan.
This is their web site:
http://www.travelocity.com/
My experience with Travelocity.com
Since 1996 I have used Travelocity.com many times and I have had many accounts with them. I have bought domestic tickets, overseas tickets, and I have purchased tickets for friends and for people in Europe coming to visit us. I have been a regular customer for 14 years. As mentioned they saved me $10,000 on my first purchase. However, it has happened to me that I have called airlines and been told that the cheapest price available was several hundred dollars more than the price quoted for the same trip with Travelocity.com. That does not mean that I only buy from Travelocity.com and it does not mean that they are always the cheapest. I check out other travel web sites as well, including orbitz.com and expedia.com, and I check with the airlines. If you have a little bit of time you should shop around. However, I typically start with Travelocity.com and unless I find a significantly cheaper price some other way I stay with Travelocity.com.
I have good experience with the customer service at Travelocity.com. There is not much that can go wrong when you order from Travelocity.com. However, sometimes I've had questions when I've done complicated purchases. When I have called them they have typically been very helpful.
Final Conclusion
As mentioned Travelocity.com has saved me thousands of dollars and I am pretty happy with them. Don't use them exclusively but don't forget to check with Travelocity.com before you buy a ticket.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Tickets to Sweden & tickets to other places
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About the Author
Member: Thomas Wikman
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
Reviews written: 1013
Trusted by: 193 members
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