Has anyone else checked this out? I just did and it was a disaster. "WAS" as a departure airport made me choose between DCA and IAD (BWI wasn't an option) and apparently wouldn't make a fare comparison among the three airports. I chose IAD and asked for IAD-ATL-IAD on DL, TW, or America West (whatever their code is). They had told me Alaska doesn't fly this route. Surprise!!! I don't think America West does, either, and I'm not really sure about TWA. Then I went on hold. Five minutes later, I signed off and sent them a "No Thanks!!!!!" E-mail.
Phil

Is this a new function of TheTrip.com? I know there used to be (two years ago) a website doing the same thing but I can't remember if it was TheTrip.com. It was pretty good and would look for fares on 5 websites (ITN, Expedia, Travelocity and two others). After the initial test period three of them denied access to their site so I think that was the end of it.
It would be nice to have TheTrip.com trying it again but as Phil stated they need to make some major improvements otherwise it's a waste of time!!!!

IntelliTRIP claims to go directly to all of (a limited number of) the airline web sites and compare them immediately. As I said, my test experience doesn't support that claim. If I hear back from my message to them, I'll let you all know what they claim now.
Phil

I am trying the "new" intellitrip 2.0 under their Beta program testing. (this new one doesn't require a propiertary plug-in, just a plain old browser)

The program basically logs onto the web sites of certain airlines and does a price comparison and shows you all the results.

It sounds good on the surface, The problem with this, is that it only checks a limited number of airlines (like less than 10). So, it is nowhere near as good as a normal internet booking site (like expedia, travelocity, itn, etc) that are based on the full blown Sabre, Apollo, WorldSpan systems. These systems can check hundreds of airlines.

If Intellitrip was able to logon to Expedia, ITN, Travelocity, and then do a compare - now that would be much more useful!

As they progress, I will let you know more.

Logging into Expedia, Travelocity, ITN, etc would be useless. Remember, they are all just travel agents and use the same reservations networks (Apollo, Sabre, etc). Finding a lower fare on any one of them is unlikely.

Yes, you are right, in theory, you should get all the same prices from Expedia, Travelocity, ITN, etc - but you don't.

The reason - the data behind those systems are all the same, but the methods they utilize to mine that data varies, especially when looking for the lowest fares. Since there is some many different permutations, how long the engine takes looking at all the different possibilities determines how what kind of prices and flight choices it is going to show.

Also, the underlying systems (Apollo, Worldspan, Sabre) do not all have the same identical airline members in them. Yes, most of the big airlines are in all of them, but some of the smaller niche carriers are not in all of them. (For example, I believe that you can find SouthWest Airlines flights in EasySabre, but not in Expedia).

So, when I book a flight, I tend to check a couple of non-airline sites and have find big differences. Then, once I find the lowest, I then go to whatever site is going to give me the biggest bonus, including the airline's own site (ie: to get extra freq. flyer miles, discounts, etc).

Steve100: Have you tried anything specific beyond a simple airport-airport itinerary? As I said in my original post, I asked for DC to Atlanta, which should normally have given me options from DCA, IAD and BWI. They made me choose between DCA and IAD, leaving out BWI, before showing me any schedule or fare options. Then, after I chose IAD, made me wait five minutes before I gave up in disgust.

PhilForest: Yep, I experienced the same thing when I tried WAS. I think that when you try NYC you also have similiar problems (I don't believe that it includes White Plains when it should)

I guess that I give some credit to Intellitrip for trying something different, but they got a long way to go before it becomes useful.

thetrip.com is touting the new intellitrip as the greatest thing since sliced bread with a "Launch Party [that] Rocks SF" -- www.intellitrip.thetrip.com

i'd have to say that i've been extrememly disappointed with the beta test, and now with the real-time version. it seems to be a worthless product if you don't happen to flying on one of its very limited "partners".

i just experimented with a flight from gulfport to orlando that i'll be taking next week. i wanted a northwest flight to take advantage of the "free companion ticket" promotion they are having. intellitrip came back with one available flight -- on delta. according to their press release, northwest is not even expected to be one of their partners.

i think this product needs a lot more work to be useful to anybody. in defense of it, however, i did experiment with it last week and found that it showed a usair "internet-only" fare that no other utility would show, so it does have that potential.

It's not ready for prime time! I tried it the other day to check on fares from DC (both IAD and DCA) to YVR. It basically told me there were NO airlines that flew from DC to YVR. Won't be trying it again anytime soon.