Anyone ever use Travelocity for airfare?

[cruisegirl613]

Hi All-

 

I have a Dec. cruise for husband and two kids. I'm afraid that the airfare will go up soon so I'm buying tickets now. I think I've found a good deal to Ft. Lauderdale from Baltimore, MD for the four of us for $487 on travelocity. I've never purchased tickets from Travelocity and was wondering if anyone else has and would share their experiences.

 

What would happen if the rates went down after I purchased my tickets?

 

Thanks a lot!!

[greatam]

Our company uses Travelocity a lot-for air, hotels and cars. No problems, especially with the new Travelocity guarantee and Michele Peluso (CEO) guiding the company.

 

You will not be rebated if the price goes down. But at a little over $100.00pp, I wouldn't think you would see a cheaper fare.

[parody]

Travelocity is fine as far as it goes. But note that it does not include Southwest Airlines in its search. Thus, unless you went to the Southwest website directly, you would not know what their options are for a trip from Baltimore (BWI) to Ft. Lauderdale -- a market that they serve. Plus, you can always wait for a Ding! special. To see how this has helped out others, go to http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=4631972

 

But, I wonder. Is this a ticket(s) that you can buy directly from the airline and avoid a third party and $5 handling fee?

[parrothead0918]

I have used Travelocity extensively without a single problem. You still need to do your homework though. I recently found the same Midwest Airlines flight to be $30 per person cheaper booking directly from its website. It is a great place to start your research and often a good place from which to purchase. I also like Expedia. They seem to have more available flights since their search engine will mix and match airlines more readily than Travelocity.

[Globaliser]

IMHO, Travelocity used to be really good until they dumbed down the flight search pages and started offering only a small selection of flights, however sophisticated a search you ask for. And they're not even necessarily the cheapest flights; there are times when I try a Travelocity search and (even ignoring the impact of their service charges) they come back with prices that are not the lowest, or only offer flights at inconvenient times when I know that the same prices are available on better-timed flights.

 

The other thing to watch out for with Travelocity is that they do not always issue tickets instantly when you confirm your purchase - even when it's an e-ticket. The importance is that if the fare increases before the ticket is issued, they have to ask you for the difference. This has caused a certain amount of trouble for CC members, which you can see if you search these forums. This practice is inexcusable these days; one of the airlines I regularly book with will issue an e-ticket and have an e-mail in my inbox with the ticket number faster than I can physically switch from the browser window to my e-mail program.

 

Travelocity used to operate a site called easySabre, which was one of the original online air ticket and travel booking sites. It mimicked the behaviour of the computer systems that the big operators supply to travel agents. It was the fastest, most powerful and sophisticated online travel booking site I have ever seen publicly available on the Internet. However, they killed it - and every subsequent incarnation of Travelocity has been less good, less powerful and less useful. Such is progress.

[Stacylee]

I have used all those sites - Cheaptickets too - for airfare, hotels, cars. I do compare though, in order to save a few bucks, I have used all 3 major ones for different parts of one trip. I used Travelocity for my air from IAD to FLL last Nov when DH and I eloped. When the airline changed our flight times for 2 legs of our trip, Travelocity called me and emailed me right away. Coming home, the flight would have left us sitting in St Louis for 5 hours between flights. The rep was so accomodating. She changed our outbound flight from FLL to 5 hours later and we changed planes in Chicago instead. All this for no price difference! Considering we got 160 RT over Thanksgiving, I thought that was a great deal! It also allowed us to stay an extra day in Key West!

[snie]

I've found www.sidestep.com to be absolutely the best for finding the lowest fares. It searches all of the airline sites and online travel sites and gives you a list.

 

My TA was suprised at how low of a fare I found, and she could not even come close. She recommended I book the tix on my own!! :)

[parody]

As I mentioned in a previous post:

 

Up until the beginning of this year, I would have said that SideStep (either its download or website) was the best site to use -- if you were using only one -- as it was one of the few search engines that included Southwest Airlines in its search of flights. However, Southwest is no longer included in SideStep (along with all but one other search engine that I am aware of) and I would now say that it is no better than average at the moment. A couple of features that it lacks. First, the inclusion of nearby airports is "all or nothing". By that I mean that if one enables a search of nearby airports it does it for BOTH the origin and destination airports. However, there are times when nearby airports at only one end of the trip makes sense. Second, the distance for nearby airports is FIXED at 75 miles. Again, there are times when either longer or shorter distances makes sense. Lastly, the results displayed are not user friendly in terms of looking at things like alternative travel times, etc.

 

Independent comparison tests indicate that itasoftware.com performs better than SideStep, and can handle nearby airports at either the origin or destination and distances to be considered can be specified by the user in 25 mile increments up to 300 miles. And there are many other attractive features too numerous to state.