Orbitz.com in Websites for Checking Airfares Forum

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Bingo27ma	Orbitz.com	Lead	[-]
Posts: 34 Jun 7 01 9:32 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Hello, So, what are your thoughts on orbitz.com that was started by many of the major airlines? Do you think it will make many of the other travel web sites obsolete for checking prices? I know its fairly new and I've not had much time to look at it and compare it against the others. Has anyone else? Big B
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz.com	#1	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jun 7 01 11:20 AM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Since this is the Websites for Checking Airfares category, I'd like to keep comments limited to Orbitz's airline ticket pricing. I have previously commented on Orbitz here pub4.ezboard.com/fpriceli...ID=2.topic However, Orbitz has made tremendous improvements in their ability to offer lower fares in recent weeks, so my comments there are pretty much obsolete, but not completely. Here's the text of a post I made to another message board yesterday in response to the same question you've posed (someone also commented about Southwest's legal dispute with Orbitz, so I included comments about that as well): "I have been using Orbitz for nearly a year as one of many sources for checking airfares. In response to a request by a national newspaper, I have extensively tested Orbitz over the past few days since it's official launch. My search was limited only to determining if Orbitz offered the lowest available fare on a particular itinerary. I did not use the advance search options offered like checking other nearby airports. The results of my searches have revealed that Orbitz is probably the best travel agency website as far as the number of fares and routings it offers; however, Orbitz is still not offering all of the lowest available fares available. In other words, there were quite a few instances where a lower fare could be obtained directly through an airline website. As to Southwest's position on Orbitz, Southwest sued Orbitz in Federal Court in California in early May. The primary allegations in the lawsuit are that Orbitz is not listing Southwest's lowest fares and that Orbitz is listing non-valid Southwest routings. Some examples of non-valid Southwest routings that Orbitz lists are more than one connection (Southwest does not sell a ticket with more than one connection). Also, Orbitz has listed itineraries that may list the first leg of a connecting flight arriving at the connecting airport after midnight with the connecting flight departing 5 or 6 hours later. Southwest does not sell such routings. Southwest is demanding that Orbitz remove Southwest fare displays completely from their website. Orbitz's response is that they will display all fares publicly available. I guess it's not important to Orbitz that they provide only accurate fare displays, because I have certainly seen many examples of inaccurate Southwest fare displays on Orbitz." To answer your question about the possibility of Orbitz rendering the competition (primarily Travelocity and Expedia) obsolete, no, I do not think so. As both Travelocity and Expedia offer some fares they have negotiated with the airlines and are available exclusively to them, Orbitz will never be a one stop shop for obtaining the lowest fare. It seems that all of the airlines now offer specially negotiated fares with various travel agency websites. In some cases, the travel agencies earn more on these specially negotiated fares than they do on regular published fares, because the negotiated fare can be fee based rather than commission based. This is what is commonly referred to in the travel agency business as "merchant" business. Both Expedia and Travelocity continue to concentrate on their merchant business, and as a result, has allowed them to become profitable in advance of previous financial projections. Orbitz will clearly be a major player and a formidable competitor in the marketplace, but their competition should never be discounted or ignored.
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz.com	#2	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jun 7 01 12:45 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I check Web Travel News everyday and today's story on Orbitz's full scale launch pretty much supports my views as well as offers additional commentary. www.webtravelnews.com/article.html?id=774
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz.com	#3	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jun 22 01 1:49 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Preliminary figures also support the above views. "Another air travel Web site may also be facing a challenge. Much ballyhooed Orbitz.com, co-owned by major airlines including United and American, has done well attracting visitors, but not necessarily doing business with them. Boston-based Compete Inc., a competitive intelligence service, said Orbitz outdrew Travelocity.com by 300,000 visitors in its first week, but less than 1 percent of its visitors made a reservation. By comparison, Travelocity converted 4.3 percent and Expedia.com converted 1.9 percent, said Man Jit Singh, CEO of Compete. "If travelers find that this newcomer really does deliver the most options at the lowest prices, then more lookers will become bookers," he said. Singh noted that those competitors' Web sites have recently added new services, indicating they are taking the new competition seriously." www.marketwatch.com/news/...DFC2838%7D
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz.com	#4	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jul 11 01 7:31 AM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I continue to monitor Orbitz for reliability in displaying the lowest available airfares. Since their official launch in early June when they started listing web-only fares for some airlines, they do offer more low fares than they did previously, but Orbitz is still by no means a single source to determine the lowest available fare. They no longer display Southwest fares at all and they only display web-only fares of their founding members.
bingo27	Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire	#5	[-]
Posts: 34 Jul 18 01 9:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire to Provide Specially Negotiated Fares and Hotel Rates Here's a link to the news story... biz.yahoo.com/bw/010718/2634.html
notnek	Re: Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire	#6	[-]
Posts: 543 Jul 18 01 10:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This sounds pretty similar to the deal between Priceline and Travelocity.
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire	#7	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jul 18 01 10:10 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't think so, notnek. This sounds to me like Orbitz will actually be listing Hotwire's fares along with all their other fares. The Travelocity/Priceline partnership is simply sending one company's customer to the other in the event that the original company's product does not satisfy the consumer's needs.
notnek	Re: Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire	#8	[-]
Posts: 543 Jul 18 01 10:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Oh, right. I interpreted the press release as placing greatest emphasis on reciprocal links, as opposed to reciprocal fare listings. If Orbitz does list Hotwire fares as you suggest, Sheryl, it will be very embarrassing for Hotwire to be clearly shown to be more expensive than conventionally available fares at least 1 out of 4 times (as per their own Stanford statistics!). For that same reason, I would be surprised if Hotwire listed Orbitz fares on its site. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire	#9	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jul 18 01 10:47 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* it will be very embarrassing for Hotwire to be clearly shown to be more expensive than conventionally available fares at least 1 out of 4 times (as per their own Stanford statistics!). notnek, you are quick!! I never thought of that. Actually, though, the Stanford study compared Hotwire to Travelocity and Expedia, neither of which list the airline's web-only fares that Orbitz lists for their founding partners only, so if a direct comparison were to be made between Hotwire and Orbitz, I suspect that 1 out 4 figure would actually be closer to 1 out of 3, even more shameful to Hotwire!!
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz Enters Into Agreement With Hotwire	#10	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jul 19 01 12:53 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	OK, I'm pretty embarrassed. notnek, it appears you were absolutely correct in your read of the press release and I was wrong. Funny thing is that I re-read it last night but still didn't realize what this arrangement really amounts to until I read other media stories on it today. Here's one www.webtravelnews.com/art...tml?id=804 Notnek, you're a lot smarter than I am.
CJchicago	orbitz 2002	#11	[-]
Posts: 13 Jul 6 02 3:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think that people need to checkout orbitz to truly get an accurate price available. I travel about 40x a year and since I started in January looking at Orbitz, Bestfares.com, Expedia, Yahoo and the Airlines, Orbitz had the best price listed. Also, I used Orbitz as my gauge for priceline.com and was turned down on priceline for almost the same price as orbitz. Anyone else look into Orbitz lately? CJ
Sheryl	Re: orbitz 2002	#12	[-]
Posts: 170334 Jul 6 02 3:31 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Orbitz advertises that they have the most low fares, and I think that's an accurate statement; however, they most definitely do not always have the lowest fare. They do not get the lowest fares from America West or any of the low fare carriers, nor do they get the lowest fares from some non-U.S. based carriers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BiddingForTravel.com can only remain a free resource through the support of those who benefit from the information available. Please read my post CLICK HERE: Amazing-Bargains.com Please place your Priceline bids through this link Expedia--Check for Special Hotel Rates Here Orbitz - The Travel Site with the Most Web-Only Rates on the Internet! Entertainment - Now offering $10 on all Entertainment Books!
mkraft7	Orbitz: phantom fares	#13	[-]
Posts: 43 Oct 13 02 7:36 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I included Orbitz in a 'fare search' yesterday. The search returned 3 pages worth of JetBlue non-stop flights for the route I wanted, none of which appeared in the search results at other websites. All of the flights had the same low price. All directed me to JetBlue for ticketing (i.e., Orbitz didn't sell tickets for them). All of them also turned out to be non-existent at the fares shown (not even close) once I contacted JetBlue. If that's par for the course for Orbitz, I don't see the point of using it as a guide for a Priceline bid. Or is it usually more reliable?
Sheryl	Re: Orbitz: phantom fares	#14	[-]
Posts: 170334 Oct 13 02 7:57 PM GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Your question is directly addressed in a story I read just today in the Washington Post. See www.washingtonpost.com/wp...Oct11.html Note that it says this is not unique to Orbitz, which has also been my experience and the experience of others. That said, none of the low fare carriers such as JetBlue, Airtran or ATA provide their lowest fares to Orbitz. Only Orbitz's charter members do. Their charter members are typically the full service carriers. From our Airline Tickets FAQ: *Quote:* The travel agent websites such as Travelocity and Expedia do not usually offer the airlines' Internet-only fares. Orbitz only lists the Internet-only fares of its charter member airlines, and even at that, not all of them might be listed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BiddingForTravel.com can only remain a free resource through the support of those who benefit from the information available. Please read my post CLICK HERE: Amazing-Bargains.com Please place your Priceline bids through this link Expedia--Check for Special Hotel Rates Here Orbitz - The Travel Site with the Most Web-Only Rates on the Internet! Entertainment Book - Just Out 2003 Book Now Available--$5 Off and Free Shipping for 2 or More Books!
MichaelBei	Fares on Orbitz can be lower than on Airline's Own Site	#15	[-]
Posts: 187 Mar 28 03 8:55 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have recently seen in several cases airlines offering lower fares on Orbitz than on their own website. So even though the lowest fare is sometimes only available on an airline's website, you cannot do your research by checking single airline websites to the exclusion of Orbitz and other multi-airline sites. Two cases in point: 1. A couple of months ago: I got EWR to London Gatwick on Virgin Atlantic for a trip this August for $360 on Orbitz, the lowest fare for same dates was around $1100 on Virgin Atlantic website (yes, this is real, I have the ticket). 2. BWI to MSY for Thanksgiving travel, $167 on Northwest with Orbitz including multiple single connection options, $244 on Northwest's site with only double connections. Northwest is an airline that has frequently offered better scheduling options for lower fares on Orbitz than they have on their own site.
dorakeen	Re: Orbitz.com	#16	[-]
Posts: 25 Nov 21 03 12:45 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The "Flexible dates" option from the orbitz search page doesn't work right. It's a nice idea, but the results don't necessarily give you the lowest rates. I entered 12/22-28 for my dates and specified "1 day after" for both, and it spits out a nice graph of the 4 combinations (22-28,22-29,23-28,23-29), but they aren't the lowest fares! You can click on the links and find the correct lowest rates , but it's just as easy to change your dates using a regular search. Also, those fares really are first-come-first-served. I saw a great fare for my dates and started to fill out all the information and was right about to hit "purchase", but I decided to check PL first for the same dates,. When I got back 15m later the fare was gone...argh.
DanAirozo	Re: Orbitz.com	#17	[-]
Posts: 9 Jun 4 04 10:47 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have liked Orbitz a lot. I have only ordered Hotel through Orbitz. I sure do use Orbitz to compare airlines and Hotels a lot. I use Orbitz and a couple of other sites and then I go to my Airline of most air miles and I actually order and Pay for the ticket there (ie United). Then, there are no problems with mileage accruel and sometimes I see the actual Airline price is $5 less than Orbitz. But, Orbitz has Many Hotels to choose from, even the lower priced ones like Motel 6, which are not in Expedia. Lastly, I was planning a jet trip into Guilin, China then over to Manila, Philippines. Orbitz really spells it out, and when I called United Mileage, they assured that I would get any United Air Miles due even if I purchased through Orbitz.

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