Originally Posted by
annbs
I have found a BOS-IST trip in BE on both Expedia and Orbitz priced ca. $800 less than on the Delta website. I checked with a Delta agent by telephone, but she could not bring up the lower price. My question: is there any downside to buying the ticket through Expedia (or Orbitz)?
Thanks for your help.
I've had this experience before several times and have had no issue with purchasing off of expedia. I even purchased a ticket just yesterday through Expedia that I couldn't price out on Delta. And it was pretty much the same thing as your situation, BE and a mix of DL & KL metal, but all on KL flight numbers. Interestingly it was ticketed as on DL 006 ticket stock. I was able to immediately see my itinerary at delta.com and choose my seats, etc.
I doubt that your ticket is a consolidator fare, but you never know. If you price out the same itin on different booking engines, you will often get different prices. Your situation is far from unheard of.
If you want, you could look up your fare on ExpertFlyer (get a trial version if you don't have it already) and see if the fare is listed there.
The biggest downside is not having the 24-hour risk-free cancellation on expedia. If the prices were the same, then definitely use dl.com. But to save $800, I certainly would book via expedia.