Commentary: Takeoff is bumpy for airlines' new flight-booking Web site

E-mail this article Print this article

After more than a year on the runway, Orbitz, a big new travel-booking Web site backed by five major airlines, was launched last week but immediately battled technical glitches and slowdowns in its first days of operation.

Owned by United, American, Delta, Continental and Northwest, Orbitz's operators say it scans up to 2 billion itineraries for each flight query and finds sale fares previously available only at individual airlines' Web sites. The site is www.orbitz.com.

CEO Jeff Katz said Orbitz can access information from 455 airlines, 210 hotel chains, 42 rental-car companies, 30 tour operators and eight cruise lines. Thirty-four of the airlines are "charter associates" meaning they'll allow Orbitz to display their Web specials, such as last-minute bargains.

Will Orbitz mean lower air fares? In some cases, yes. Will it herald an end to comparison shopping on the Web? Absolutely not.

Based on advanced search technology, Orbitz can speedily sift through a dizzying number of fare combinations. For a typical query, Orbitz shows more than 100 choices.

To the traveler, this may sound daunting. But it isn't. Selections for domestic flights are neatly arranged and are easily scanned. Travelers can, for example, quickly compare the best nonstop fare on United to a one-stop on Alaska Airlines.

"We'll have the most low fares in an unbiased display," Katz said. "With the matrix, (consumers) will see it all."

International routes, however, are displayed the traditional way, similar to the listings at Expedia and Travelocity, two major (and competing) airline-booking Web sites.

Orbitz also offers package tours to vacation hubs such as Las Vegas. And it's touting its Traveler Care center, which will send notices - by e-mail or phone - alerting travelers about delays and gate locations. These will be impressive services - if they're reliably delivered.

Although Orbitz offers sophisticated booking for air fares and car rentals, its service for hotels lags behind others.

Unlike Expedia, which has several sorting criteria such as a star ranking (1 to 5), Orbitz simply shows all its hotels for a particular city. Expedia and Travelocity also aggressively negotiate deals with leading hotels, meaning they often have better prices than standard rates found elsewhere.

Orbitz was surrounded by controversy before its Web launch.

More than 20 state attorneys general raised concerns about the airline-backed site not providing nonbiased information.

In April, the Department of Transportation cleared Orbitz for takeoff, but, along with the Justice Department, pledged to watch Orbitz closely for signs of anti-competitive behavior.

Officials for Expedia, the second-leading travel site after Travelocity, say Orbitz's arrangement with its charter members is unfair.

"Imagine if the car companies got together to create a single 'separately managed' company," said Suzi LeVine, Expedia's marketing manager.

As Orbitz has prepared for launch, Expedia (www.expedia.com) and Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) have aggressively promoted their own discounted fares and innovations.

Testing some two-week-advance itineraries showed varying results among the three Web sites:

• For a round-trip flight between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Los Angeles, Travelocity found a $230 fare, compared with $244 at both Expedia and Orbitz.

• Searching for a round trip from Seattle to any New York area airport, Travelocity again found the best deal, a $331 fare that beat the $341 found by Expedia and Orbitz.

• Seeking a low fare for a 15-day advance to Hong Kong, none of the big sites found a good deal - the best was $1,568 at Orbitz, compared with $1,605 at Expedia and $1,683 at Travelocity.

Because these fares to Hong Kong were so high, I entered the query into Qixo (www.qixo.com), which searches many air-fare discounters with one query. Qixo turned up a fare of $1,125, a savings of more than $400.

Shop around

The lesson here is that no site can honestly claim to offer all choices. Comparison shopping remains essential.

Sometimes the best deals are uncovered on discount sites, such as Cheap Tickets (www.CheapTickets.co), Air Treks (www.airtreks.com) and Lowest Fare (www.lowestfare.com).

Fare-comparison sites like www.qixo.com and www.farechase.com can be helpful. A browser plug-in called SideStep (www.sidestep.com) scours airline sites and can turn up good deals.

In some cases, especially for complex or international itineraries, calling a travel agent is still the best bet.

Orbitz's advanced search technology and access to airlines' special fares means it has the potential to be a good place to start your search. But "potential" is the key word, and the site's airline owners - American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United - have been accused of not having a strong commitment to low prices or customer service.

A problem for Orbitz came up early last month when Southwest Airlines sued Orbitz, seeking removal from its Web site. Though Orbitz never sold Southwest tickets, the site listed Southwest flights and prices. But the airline says Orbitz wasn't describing the itineraries accurately. And, until Southwest filed suit, when someone using Orbitz's beta (testing) version selected a Southwest flight, they got this response: "Unfortunately tickets for this flight cannot be purchased online." This wasn't true - tickets could be purchased at www.southwest.com.

As failed dot-com after failed dot-com has shown, creating a consumer-friendly and profitable Web site isn't easy. Though Katz has described Orbitz as a "small startup" it's anything but. With the backing of major airlines and a $100 million annual marketing budget, Orbitz has the potential to become a top travel-booking site.

But as Scottish philosopher Adam Smith said more than two centuries ago: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

Michael Shapiro is a travel columnist and author of "Internet Travel Planner."