Battle of Titans: Travelocity vs. Expedia--Who's REALLY Best
Written: Dec 01 '00
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
|
| Full Review |
I LOVE finding great travel deals and I use every tool out there to make sure that I'm always the guy getting the best deal on everything, from plane tickets to rental cars. That means I'm always scanning the travel web sites, that I'm using a bunch of them, and that I'm always comparing them to off-web sources like the traditional travel agent down the block.
Two of the biggest and best online ticketing sites are Travelocity and Expedia. I use them both, and I have a love-hate relationship with both. Being the fickle cheap traveler that I am, a HUGE consideration for me is how reliably a site shows me the rock-bottom fare. But there are some other factors too: how cleanly designed, fast, and usable the site is; how complete, accurate, and relevant the information is; and the level of service that I can expect during and after the sale.
I'm currently planning a couple of trips for just after the New Year, so I've been surfing back and forth between Expedia and Travelocity, trying to find out what the best flight schedules are for me and who has the cheapest fares. It's providing me with a good stress test of both systems, showing me what each can do on identical itineraries. Surprise! There is a big difference between the information I get from each and the prices I can pay. Consequently, I've got some great ammo for a side-by-side review of both Travelocity and Expedia, based on up-to-the-minute information.
Here's what I think about Travelocity these days...
Usability Does the site design help me find and do what I need?
Travelocity's really improved quite a bit over the last year or so. They've got a cleaner look, and while there's a lot going on right on their first page, it strikes me as pretty well organized. One thing I love about their current look and feel is the availability of your own fare watcher fares smack dab on the first page -- you don't need to track email or jump around trying to figure out how to locate the fares. Two years ago it was virtually impossible to ever actually find a fare listed in your fare watcher. Now it's easy and intuitive, and you can just move right through the process of picking flight dates from a calendar that shows you availability -- it's great!
Generally, the site is quick and clean. Expedia is cleaner, with less clutter, but I think Travelocity is, overall, pretty darn good on usability.
Completeness Does the site give me enough information to make an educated decision?
The biggest thing I demand as a customer is complete flight schedules and fare information. I demand to see every single flight on every carrier serving a route that I plan to fly. If I know that a web site doesn't list even a single flight, then I know for a certainty that I can't trust the fares they show to actually be the rock-bottom cheapest fare.
Additionally, I would like a good range of useful information of a more general sort. Of the general information that some sites include, I like seeing seating charts of common aircraft types identifying configurations used by major carriers, and I like seeing airport gate maps, and I like easy access to flight arrival and departure information for the current day. Destination guides are sometimes nice too, and so are links to related travel sites. Of course, being the World's Cheapest Traveler, I love seeing a section that lists late-breaking bargains!
Both Travelocity and Expedia include destination guides. Travelocity includes an airplane seat map feature, Expedia doesn't. Both sites include special promotional deals, but I think Travelocity has more of them, and they have more links to outside sites -- like Frommers that have even more. For my money, Travelocity does a bit better in providing the extra info I need.
Flight info is the most important kind of info though, and frankly, I get a little worried when I look at the method used to constrain a search to certain airlines. On both sites, it's a pull-down, which almost always means "incomplete", and sure enough, Expedia's pull-down doesn't even list some biggie players like Southwest (I'm sure Travelocity's pull-down forgets a few too!). The worst symptom of incomplete information shows up in Expedia where searches almost never seem to find Southwest flights, even though they are often the most economical fare on the market. You just can't "forget" about America's biggest low-cost carrier...
Expedia has similar knowledge gaps in lots of markets with lots of airlines. Aeromexico flights didn't show up as even being available from some major U.S. cities to popular destinations like Cancun, yet on Travelocity they often pop up with the rock-bottom best fare.
Both Travelocity and Expedia have gaps in their information base when dealing with foreign flag carriers, but it often seems to me that Travelocity is better at knowing about foreign carrier flights -- especially the bigger ones, and better about letting you actually book flights on them.
Bottom line: Travelocity has more flight info available than Expedia. Let's look and see just how well the two sites really do at using that information to save you money...
Economy Does the site reliably give me the cheapest fares?
To stress-test both Travelocity and Expedia, I'll compare identical itineraries on the two systems and see what I get...
First, I'm planning a trip in January from Houston to Baltimore. I plug in my data to Travelocity's Best-Fare Finder to see what I get. Bingo! Very fast response, and it shows me several daily flights on Southwest as low as $198 round-trip. Let's jump over to Expedia and do the same thing, and Whoops! looks like they don't even know about Southwest Airlines -- it doesn't let me choose it from the drop-down, and it certainly doesn't find the fare in it's Best Fare Finder. In fact, it shows me a cheapest fare of $246 -- about 25% higher than I'd have paid by buying on Travelocity!!
Ah well, that's just one test. Let's try another.
I also need to jet down to Monterrey Mexico from Houston for a few days, sometime around the new year. I'll plug everything into Travelocity, hit the search button, and Bingo! up comes a round-trip fare of $248 on Aeromexico or $252 on Aviacsa, both direct non-stops. Jump over to Expedia and see how it stacks up, and Whoa! It shows me a "cheapest" fare of $274 on American -- with a stop in Dallas! Boy! Pay more for less convenience -- that really bites!
Another surprise difference when I decide that the Aviacsa flight schedule best meets my needs. Although I can find the flight on Expedia (by searching through the complete list of flights), it can't actually complete the sale! A lame error message pops up blaming the airline. It's lame because I then jumped over to Travelocity, used the Best Fare Finder feature, which located the flight in a snap, and had absolutely zero problems completing the purchase online. If Travelocity can do it, why can't Expedia??
Bottom line: Travelocity more reliably finds low fares than does Expedia, and actually lets you buy them.
Service Does the site help me do business?
In all the hoopla over doing business on the Internet, the media often glosses over the fact that customer service with web-based on businesses is often pitiful. Many sites don't provide feedback mechanisms and don't list physical addresses or phone numbers. Let's face it, there are times when every customer has a problem or a complaint and needs to ask questions or talk to someone.
Speaking from personal experience, I know that Travelocity is horrible in the customer service department. About two years ago I purchased tickets through Travelocity only to have them never arrive, get put on hold for over 30 minutes before speaking to a representative, and then finding that through some inexplicable glitch, the reservation was cancelled. Gracias, Cabron.
I'm hoping that Travelocity has gotten better at customer service. They at least have put contact links close to the top of the first home page, and seem to have some clue that maybe service counts. They also have an FAQ list that explains most common questions.
They still have lots of room for improvement. Unfortunately, their contact page only promises a 24-hour turnaround on email requests (inexorably slow compared to what I get by picking up the phone calling my neighborhood travel agent), and their list of phone numbers includes only toll-free numbers, which are often unusable (or very hard to use) from overseas. If you have a problem with your ticket when you're in Bogota or Istanbul, you're probably screwed if all you've got is an 800 number to call for help. It would also help if they learn that about 5 minutes max on hold is the limit for "good" customer service.
Bottom line: Travelocity might be okay on customer service if you don't ever have a problem, but if you do, you should probably expect a lower level of service than you get from local travel agents. Sadly, I don't think anyone else on line is much better...
Stacked up to the Competition
If you'd asked me a year ago to choose just one travel web site, it would have been Expedia. But that was soooo last year. Today, it's a no-brainer to pick Travelocity as the best. And most important to the World's Cheapest Traveler (that's me!), Expedia provides incomplete information, guaranteeing that it can never reliably list the rock-bottom fare. If I can't trust them to save me money, why bother? Travelocity lists more flights to more places at better prices, and that's the rock-bottom reason why they're now the best online ticketing agency.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Location: Lone Star State
Reviews written: 1791
Trusted by: 1016 members
About Me: If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
|
