In a whirlwind of competition between online travel agencies, Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity have all dropped their booking fees. That’s right: no booking fees.
Through May 31, 2009, that is.
The big three online travel agencies have decided to “temporarily” drop their booking fees.
Orbitz, Expedia, CheapTickets, and Travelocity now join Hotwire and Priceline as booking-fee free online travel agencies..
Some exceptions apply, so read the terms carefully. This includes Orbitz still imposing fees for multi-carrier itineraries (e.g. a Northwest flight connecting to American Airlines flight).
The biggest difference between the services? Orbitz offers Price Assurance (we discussed here) as does Priceline (they call it Pricedrop protection).
I always purchase tickets directly through the airline, with the exception of using multi-carrier itineraries which I book through Orbitz. I encourage everyone else to also book directly with the carrier as, when in a pickle with a cancelled flight, I have found air carrier reps to generally be more helpful than online travel agencies’ customer service reps.
So, enjoy the fact that there are no booking fees, even if it’s only temporary at Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Hotwire, and Priceline.
What do you think — will the agencies bring back fees in June? Or will they remain with no booking fees for the foreseeable future?
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I agree that it’s generally best to book directly. Solutions to travel dilemmas come more quickly when there’s only one possible “responsible party” to deal with!
The online agencies can be useful for research and trend-spotting, I think. I’ll be interested to see if and how the no booking fee decision impacts business and travel in general.
Being in the travel business I sure am curious as to where this information came from. Travelocity has always had opti-fees and to my knowledge still does. Just because a company says they have no “booking fees” do not mistake that as if it said it had no fees. They then can tack on hotel fees, and a whole slew of other named fees. This is the reality of it.
Seems that the competition is definitely heating up between the large online booking systems. Great way to go if you have simple stuff to book, but would saving $5 or $10 really make that much of a difference? The real question is where will you get the most value? Which online booking sites are easiest to navigate? Which sites will back you up with excellent service when you’ve got questions? Maybe all of that would be worth way more than some small fee. Look for an online booking site that will provide ease of use on the front end and world-class support on the back end.
@ Steve – that’s a really great idea. I think one of the best ways to get true top notch service is to go to a local travel agent. They do have fees; but the service you’ll get will be that much better.
People do not believe that orbitz doesn’t charge booking fee…
I think cheapoair.com is the leading website in US
What makes them arrive to the idea of not having a booking fee?