Why do people use Travelocity, Expedia, etc?

[Anonymous]

We’ve always booked all our travel directly. We book airline, hotel, car rental, any excursion directly with that provider.

For those of you that you third party booking, what’s the benefit?

[Anonymous]

I don't see the difference in price. We do both, but usually Expedia when several airlines are involved.

[Anonymous]

It’s a good way to search across brands. You can still book directly afterwards.

Also some people don’t know any better.

[Anonymous]

I used to 100% book hotels at hotel sites but then started comparison shopping with expedia and with fairly high end hotels found I could save $500 or so per trip so started using expedia for those kinds of trips. I do not book non-refundable but if I did the savings would be even greater.

[Anonymous]

Plane tickets are cheaper on Expedia than going directly through the airline.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes they have better hotel deals or upgrades than you can get by booking directly. It makes sense to comparison shop.

[Anonymous]

We have decent luck with hotels.com and that is Expedia behind the scenes.

The rates are pretty much the same if you go to the hotel brand site. We get tired of using multiple hotel rewards programs with no reward redemptions.

Hotels.com used to work out to about a 10% discount by giving reward nights. This isn't true anymore.

It also doesn't seem to be true anymore that if you call a front desk you can get a cheaper rate on a same day basis. The clerks don't want to negotiate. If you can even get them on the phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good way to search across brands. You can still book directly afterwards.

This. How does OP search for flights to Europe? Do they check all major US and European airline websites for pricing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plane tickets are cheaper on Expedia than going directly through the airline.

That may have been true in the past. Has not been for probably 10 years at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good way to search across brands. You can still book directly afterwards.

This. How does OP search for flights to Europe? Do they check all major US and European airline websites for pricing?

I check kayak and google. When I find ticket I want to purchase, I go directly to airline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plane tickets are cheaper on Expedia than going directly through the airline.

This is great, until there is an issue with your flight and you receive no service or support from the airline and have to sit on the phone with Expedia for hours trying to book you onto god knows who sometime in the next 3 days.

I worked for Hilton 15 years ago and remember lots of Expedia users outright yelling at me because there was an issue with their reservation (usually just that it didn’t exist in our system) because Expedia got something wrong and I couldn’t help them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plane tickets are cheaper on Expedia than going directly through the airline.

That may have been true in the past. Has not been for probably 10 years at least.

This is my experience too. Tickets are always cheaper via airline. Maybe Expedia puts cheaper tickets up top of results…but they’re the ones with crazy long layovers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plane tickets are cheaper on Expedia than going directly through the airline.

This is great, until there is an issue with your flight and you receive no service or support from the airline and have to sit on the phone with Expedia for hours trying to book you onto god knows who sometime in the next 3 days.

I worked for Hilton 15 years ago and remember lots of Expedia users outright yelling at me because there was an issue with their reservation (usually just that it didn’t exist in our system) because Expedia got something wrong and I couldn’t help them.

This exactly. We once got left somewhere…no one would help. Also had them book connections abroad that were too close and should not have been allowed. After those two incidents, and a thousand dollars, not worth the “savings”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good way to search across brands. You can still book directly afterwards.

This. How does OP search for flights to Europe? Do they check all major US and European airline websites for pricing?

Google

[Anonymous]

Since they’re third party resellers they sometimes have things cheaper, albeit without any of the protections and accountability that come from booking directly.

Deals were more common a decade ago.

Also people use them for packages.