Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Orbitz Raises Booking Fee to $6 Per Ticket

Looks like they just snuck this in today. I suspect Expedia and Travelocity will do the same, or maybe they'll use it as a competitive advantage. I suspect the former.

Thanks for the "heads up".

They should make it $20 per ticket since only non-price-conscious shoppers buy from Orbitz instead of the airline web site anyway.

QL

Oh, QuietLion, you will eventually eat those words. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

Yesterday, I purchased 3 tickets LAX-MEX-LAX 7/17-7/28 at $330 per, AeroMexico non-stops, on Orbitz. The same itinerary was $389 on Expedia and even higher than that on both Travelocity and AeroMexico's website. AeroMexico's website was the highest of all of them.

I have purchased US Airways tickets in the past on Orbitz that were much higher on US Airways website.

In my circle of "deal chasers," we could give you dozens of similar examples. If you limit your airline ticket searches to the airline websites only, you may be paying too much for some of your tickets.

Sheryl
I never think of Orbitz as a great way to save money,so thanks for sharing. What about hotels? Their rates seem higher than everyone (many times including the chain itself).

I do not have anywhere near as much experience with Orbitz hotels as I do with their airline ticket product. While I have not found any rates lower than available on the hotel's website, I've found most of the same rates. They are not always displayed on the screen that you first see, though. You have to click on the "More Rates" link.

I have made two hotel bookings on Orbitz in the past three days. They were both AAA rates that were the same as on the hotel's website. Both were available only by clicking on the "More Rates" link.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sheryl:
Oh, QuietLion, you will eventually eat those words. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif</font>

Indeed. The booking fee, be it $5 or $6, is worthwhile when the site offers value. If a big travel site offers me the exact same fare I could buy on an airline Web site while saving the booking fee and getting bonus FF miles to boot (which is usually the case), then the big travel site has value only as a search tool. However, sometimes the big travel sites hang on to the lower fare classes after these sell out on the airlines' own sites - whether this is deliberate or because of database replication issues, I don't know. I recently bought a ticket to Singapore and Expedia offered a sale fare that for my preferred flights was sold out on ual.com, the latter offering a price of $400 more. In that case I was happy to let Expedia have their $5. Given the sum of the booking fee and the value of the FF miles I'm giving up, the big travel sites need to offer savings of at least $50 in order to make economic sense.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Given the sum of the booking fee and the value of the FF miles I'm giving up, the big travel sites need to offer savings of at least $50 in order to make economic sense.</font>$50? You put an awfully high value on 1,000 FF miles.

I've heard of that happening but never seen it myself, Sheryl. Thanks for the tip.

QL

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by QuietLion:
They should make it $20 per ticket since only non-price-conscious shoppers buy from Orbitz instead of the airline web site anyway.
QL</font>

True, if the same fare is available on both Orbitz and the airline web site. However, I have seen many, many instances where AA "web only" fares were available on Orbitz but were not available on AA.com at the same time, making it as much as $150 cheaper to buy from Orbitz (even with the fee) than AA.com.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sheryl:
$50? You put an awfully high value on 1,000 FF miles.</font>

Not really, considering it would cost me $54.56 to buy 1000 miles from Delta. It depends how likely I am to need those 1000 miles in the near future. Plus with the booking fee the $50 savings is really $45 (or $44). Plus one has to factor in the intangibles, like the risk of having to deal with Expedia's customer service if something goes wrong. Come to think of it, I wonder if I really would be driven to one of the big travel sites for $50.

I have to agree that Orbitz often offers lower airline fares that the actual carrier sites. And, I've actually found the same to be true quite a bit with car rentals and hotels. I travel pretty frequently for work (so FF miles are important to me), and am always finding myself on Orbitz making a booking.

My company makes me prove to them every trip that I "am getting the lowest offered fare/room" and I consistently have luck doing this on Orbitz. I'm betting, too, that this will be the case even with this $6 fee.

just to add my 2 cents ...
Me and Ms. chobby100 are going BOS-SFO on US metal this afternoon on orbitz tix. Cheapest elsewhere for our dates for 2 tix - $620, US web site was over $700 and orbitz ...

Adult base airfare $141.40
x 2 $282.80
tax $40.10
x2 $80.20

service fee $10.00

total trip cost $373.00

chobby100, just curious, are they United flight numbers?

I still don't understand the claim that people who don't want to be relatively thrifty book through orbitz. I'm not saying that they're always the cheapest, because I don't think you can make that assumption about anyone. However, esp. w some of their special fares, I've found that they are...

And I always thought they did alright on hotels, though I only booked w/ them a few times....do you suggest any other alternatives?

JCookery, it was QuietLion who made that claim and I think his followup posts indicate that he now realizes that his personal experience wasn't typical.

I've always preferred to use airline websites to get bonus miles. But Orbitz was far and away a price leader on interisland flights in Hawaii, LIH-MKK and MKK-LNY. I paid a total of $376 for two tickets, compared to $395 wanted by Aloha for the same tickets and $420 for the same itinerary on Expedia. Aloha gives discounts to AAA members, but that rate was also off the board. However, they do it, I'm not complaining, though the fares for 20-minute flights are truly extortionate, especially when you're flying to smaller islands like Molokai and Lanai.

It may depend on the airline. I've never found a difference in fares between Orbitz and the airline web site on the two airlines we usually fly, America West and Alaska.

QL

If you're wondering about hotels, Expedia puts Orbitz to shame. The Expedia Special Rates are significantly less than the Orbitz Saver hotels.

tekelberry
Welcome to FT!
I think everyone would agree with you. I can't see why anyone would book a room on Orbitz with so many better deals out there. I do use them to search for hotels,they are easier than going to a couple different hotel sites and search.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sheryl:
chobby100, just curious, are they United flight numbers?</font>
Sorry for the delay as we were enjoying San Francisco. The flights were on US metal with US flight numbers. I noticed on the scheduled return they were US metal / UA codeshare. I say scheduled as we were voluntarily bumped. So with no status but using the 2x US promo we got a little over 14k in miles + got bumped which got us each a free Continental US ticket + we flew 1st class on the return flights due to the bump (and let me tell you 1st class on US ain't what it used to be, but that's another story)


The flight numbers were:
Departing Flight(s)



Thursday, July 17, 2003
US Airways # 1143


depart 3:10pm
afternoon Boston Logan International (BOS)
Boston



arrive 5:15pm
evening Charlotte Douglas (CLT)
Charlotte

meal: Food for purchase
on time: 60%
cabin: Economy
equipment: Boeing 757 Passenger (757)
duration: 2h 5min
miles: 728

——— change plane (1h 0min - ground time) ———


US Airways # 59


depart 6:15pm
evening Charlotte Douglas (CLT)
Charlotte



arrive 8:34pm
evening San Francisco International (SFO)
San Francisco

meal: Food for purchase
on time: 50%
cabin: Economy
equipment: Airbus Industrie A321 (321)
duration: 5h 19min
miles: 2292



total duration: 8h 24min
total miles: 3020 miles



Returning Flight(s)



Monday, July 21, 2003
US Airways # 58


depart 12:45pm
afternoon San Francisco International (SFO)
San Francisco



arrive 8:38pm
evening Charlotte Douglas (CLT)
Charlotte

meal: Food for purchase
on time: 60%
cabin: Economy
equipment: Airbus Industrie A321 (321)
duration: 4h 53min
miles: 2292

——— change plane (1h 17min - ground time) ———


US Airways # 1218


depart 9:55pm
evening Charlotte Douglas (CLT)
Charlotte



arrive 11:58pm
evening Boston Logan International (BOS)
Boston

meal: unknown
on time: 70%
cabin: Economy
equipment: Boeing 737-400 Passenger (734)
duration: 2h 3min
miles: 728



total duration: 8h 13min
total miles: 3020 miles


[This message has been edited by chobby100 (edited 07-25-2003).]