Orbitz launches My Ideal Beach travel website

by Grant Martin on

One of the most popular questions I usually see out on the travel forums comes from first-time travelers who are looking to leave town for a “once in a lifetime” trip with their significant other. The typical question sounds something like this:

“I WANT TO GET AWAY FOR A FEW DAYS FOR MY HONEYMOON. CAN YOU RECOMMEND A NICE PLACE TO STAY? IT HAS TO BE ALL INCLUSIVE AND VERY ROMANTIC. THANKS IN ADVANCE!”

This question, of course, leaves too many unanswered questions. When? What do you want to do? Where are you leaving from? Can you give us somewhere to start?

Luckily, I now have Orbitz’s My Ideal Beach search engine to point them to. Powered by the web crawler’s wealth of hotel and travel booking data, the easy-to-use website asks users a few simple questions about their travel preferences and desires, namely: Type of Traveler, Interests and Hotel Options. Given your choices, the engine will pick out a few favorite resorts for you and spit out a couple of optimal results.

What the engine won’t do is sort by price or exclude travel options — for example, I may not only prefer an Adult-only resort, I may require that no children be present at all on the premises.

But when I think about it, this search engine isn’t really for nitpicking travelers who want to seek out the best deal at the best price. This is tool for softcore users who want a pretty interface and who want to be led to their favorite resort on a private beach behind 20 foot walls. For those travelers, this site is perfect.

JetBlue turns to travel websites for booking

by Catherine Bodry on

In the past, JetBlue sold most of its tickets through its website. But last year, the budget airline listed its fares on “global” distribution systems, which mainly serve travel agents.

Now, JetBlue has gone all the way online; it started selling tickets on travel websites like Orbitz, Expedia, and Priceline. The company explains that with rising fuel costs and a slower economy, it needs to “expand its reach and step up competition.”

And perhaps gain back some of the customers it lost during all those crazy delays and cancellations last February?

Booking a Flight from New York to San Francisco Online. But Where Online?

by Iva Skoch on

I used to be a big fan of buying tickets on travel websites such as Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com but lately, I found that it is often cheaper to buy them directly through the airlines’s websites. Have we come a full circle?

I picked a random date–a long weekend Sept.13-17 from New York to San Francisco–to see what rates would come back.

A sample of a few direct flights:

  • United: $303 on Expedia, $298 on United.com
  • Continental: $357 on Expedia, $352 on Continental.com
  • Delta: $303 on Expedia, $358 on Delta.com
  • Alaska: $343 on Expedia, $498 on Alaskaair.com (hello!)

OK, so it’s a mixed bag. I have to say though that I have yet to find a flight that is cheaper on Expedia or Travelocity than it is on Continental.com. Their website is really good, I think. It is comforting to know that airlines are starting to understand how to use the Internet to their–and our–advantage.

I now use kayak.com to see the best rates and then book directly on the airlines’ sites. Plus, I get extra miles for booking online. Expedia, be worried!

Fly to Cyprus for Less Than $40 US or Not?

by Adrienne Wilson on

Well here’s a rather bizarre story about Orbitz, one of the third-largest online travel agencies and Italian airline Alitalia. Apparently the airline accidentally listed a business-class flight from Toronto to Cyprus at $39 US on a central reservation system which then feeds flight information to online booking agencies. CNEWS notes the incorrect round-trip airfare from Toronto to Cyprus with a stop to change planes in Italy was posted with multiple departing dates on Orbitz.com, where some very lucky and not so lucky folks will probably have the vacation of their dreams. Before word among online shoppers really began to spread red flags went off and Orbitz pulled the rate to discuss with Alitalia.

To cut the crazy tale short Alitalia will be honoring a vast majority of tickets booked on Orbitz.com for those who actually received confirmation numbers from the airline. Those who never got the airline confirmation will only be reimbursed the service fee paid to Orbitz. Having experienced an online error in the past myself I have to include a moral to this story and that moral is: If something seems far too good to be true, chances are it is far too good to be true. But ahh, those very, very lucky few! Most of all it teaches us to be extra careful when booking online where glitches may be infrequent, but can always occur.

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