MilesBuzz! - On Line Booking-What's the Best Site?

I have been using several on line booking sites (Trip.com, Expedia and periodicaly Travelocity).

It seems to me that with their FF Points award system for each flight booked, Trip.com has the advantage (although I typically check all sights for fare differences).

Any opinions?

I always go to Expedia.com as they always have the lowest fare's and it seems like a solid, dependable site as it is owned by Microsoft. I have never bought any tickets on expedia.com, just look at fares and print em out so my dad can take them to the travel agent. I dont know why he dont book online, you get cheaper fares and you dont have to pay a $10 commision for each ticket.

Actually, Expedia is no longer owned by Microsoft. Spun-off as part of anti-trust agreement.

I use Expedia.com to check fares all the time, but have bought only two tickets in the past 6 months. Usually I buy my tickets online on ual.com or nwa.com to get the online booking bonus.

Linda

I find that Travelocity is head and shoulders above all others if you want to explore all options, including origin and destination. The interface is much more nimble.
Also, the site has more information, and the information is more readily accessible. They seem to make new innovations just ahead of everyone else. Other sites are more suited to the individual who is just trying to book a ticket for a certain destination or repeats the same trip. The hotel and car information on Travelocity is more detailed than on other sites, too.
Everytime I try another site I go back.

More and more, I use ITN, owned by American Express. It shows availability by fare basis, which is important for determining whether the possibility of an upgrade may be available for a particular itinerary. Their hotel engine is a lot better than either Expedia or Travelocity, as it shows which hotels are available for particular dates. With Travelocity and Expedia, you bring up a set of hotels for a city and then have to check each individual hotel for the dates you want. Expedia's "check availability" dialog is so poorly designed it can't even remember the date you typed in from hotel to hotel, so if you want to check 4 or 5 hotels' availability for the same set of dates, you have to keep typing in the date. (You didn't have to do that with the previous version of Expedia, by the way.)

I still use Expedia and Travelocity, and occasionally the airlines' own web sites, to check flight availability more out of habit than anything else.

Tute: Expedia is 86% owned by Microsoft. Anti-trust agreement? Huh?

I use the UA site mostly. It uses the ITN screen. But really, I miss the old sabre system. I liked being able to type in the symbols, including exact fare basis and connecting cities of choice. You could add on to an itinerary, chosing a differnt service class each time. It was really a great system.

Zach

Yes, all FlyerTalkers miss EasySabre. http://216.167.74.240/forum/frown.gif

I stick with the airline web sites for the online booking bonuses. I live in Charlotte where US is king, so that's where I tend to spend most of my time. Since the upgraded site earlier I have noticed easy, seamless reservations. Have not used it yet for bookings involving more than one airline, though.

Last time I tried to use Delta's site, all of the flights on that routing were not shown. It seems that I always have to call the reservationists at Delta and make sure I get the best itinerary, and then I have to write them, explain the situation and get the web bonus retroactively posted!

dgolds: I remember hearing on CNBC that they were spinning it off completely to act as a goodwill gesture for the antitrust stuff.

Whatever the case may be, I still like it as a booking site.

I use ITN to check rate codes and seat maps, Travelocity for car rentals and hotels (through the milesmall program I get points for every booking) and occasionally flights. Most of the flights I book either directly on AA.com (when it's up and running http://216.167.74.240/forum/wink.gif) or on UA conn. the software version.

Occasionally I check Expedia, but overall I find it more cumbersome than Travelocity to operate.

Think I will try out ITN and compare it to Travelocity.

Tute84... I searched several news sources and found nothing to support what you remember hearing on TV. Microsoft "spun off" Expedia last November, meaning its stock trades separately. However as of May 1 Microsoft still owns 85% of the shares. ( http://www.cnbc.com/stocks/fullstory.asp?Symbol=EXPE&id=1752520 ) There's nothing whatsoever about Expedia and antitrust on the Web other than Expedia urging a federal antitrust probe of the airlines for colluding to set low commision rates for them.


[This message has been edited by QuietLion (edited 05-15-2000).]

Today's Washington Post Travel section had its annual online travel issue. The big headline is Internet Travel: Shakeout Time. And it does seem true. But the best article is headlined, Our Fare Lady on the Cheap-seat Gamble. Its premise is that there is no best site, but there is a strategy. Whether you think it is worth the effort is up to you. But lots of good links.

While I like Travelocity, I have used Expedia more because it can handle child and senior discounts on-line. Travelocity requires you to phone it to get the discounts.

I prefer Expedia and will use ITN to check F seat availability for upgrading. The one potential downside of Expedia is that they don't have WN in their system.

Originally posted by headinclouds:
Today's Washington Post Travel section had its annual online travel issue. (...) But the best article is headlined, Our Fare Lady on the Cheap-seat Gamble. Its premise is that there is no best site, but there is a strategy.

And the article can be found (for the next 2 weeks) here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63984-2000May14.html

I usually use the Delta site as they give me a 1000 mile bonus.
When I booked my Latin Pass trip, my TA got me a much better deal than any of the on line sites.

I wonder what ever happened to the new software ITN had in beta when they were bought by Amex? It looked very interesting.

ITA, which is in no way connected with ITNwill be providing the software for the planned multi-airline booking site.

http://www.itasoftware.com.