Issue Date: August 5, 2001
Orbitz scorecard
Orbitz doesn't always offer the lowest fare. But choice, not price, is where this site excels.
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Uber-airfare site Orbitz.com launched to much hoopla (and criticism) in June, and now claims more than $100 million in ticket sales and 1 million registered users. This partnership of five airlines (Delta, Continental, American, United and Northwest) has raised the ire of consumer and industry groups, which say Orbitz squashes competition by requiring partner airlines to give it their lowest fares.
Reality? When I compared identical itineraries on SideStep, Travelocity, Expedia, Hotwire and Lowestfare, Orbitz didn't always come up with the lowest price. For a New York-L.A. flight in July, Sidestep had the cheapest fare ($214 on Southwest; two stops en route). Expedia matched that price but wouldn't show flight details until I booked. Orbitz, however, let me fly non-stop for $279, any time of day.
The big reason to use Orbitz isn't price -- it's choice. Instead of listing just one or two flights on a given day, the site lets you choose from almost any airline, fare or flight time. The engine behind the site searches up to 2 billion flight possibilities, compared with the 10,000 accessible through Travelocity and others like it.
But don't check your luggage yet. Orbitz's customer service kept me on hold for 11 minutes. They also can't book flights for more than four people at a time. And industry groups say it remains to be seen whether the company will gobble up the discounts previously found at other sites. "We think ultimately the consumer is going to be harmed because they won't have the variety of choices they had before," says Antonella Pianalto, executive director of the Interactive Travel Services Association. Best advice: Keep checking around. Orbitz is great, but you never know where you'll find that elusive, beat-all deal.
-- Rula Razek
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