Expedia Air Travel
From LoveToKnow Travel
Expedia, the online travel agent, is a one-stop travel store. Founded in 1996 as a division of Microsoft and spun off as an independent company in 1999, they offer excellent prices on air travel. Their size allows them to often have special prices you won't find at your neighborhood travel agency. What's more: you can make your reservations from your computer, 24 hours a day. Expedia is the world's largest travel provider, serving more than 25 million travelers per month. They sell travel in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Booking with Expedia
Booking air travel with Expedia is almost as easy as signing into your computer. The air travel screen allows customers to search for specific times and dates or find the lowest price within a date range. It even recognizes senior and children's discounts, helpful for family travel.
With Expedia, you can search for specific dates or search any date for a city pair. You'll get an interactive calendar with the lowest fare for each date displayed.
Once you confirm your flights and pay for them, you are sent an e-ticket (paper) confirmation which you show at the airport ticket counter to receive your boarding passes.
Services Offered
Expedia offers many of the services you'll find at a traditional travel agency. You can confirm seat assignments in most cases, request special meals, and request special assistance for disabled passengers.
In addition to air travel, Expedia offers competitive prices and reservations for tour packages, cruises, car rentals, and hotels.
Advantages to Expedia Air Travel
Because they deal with such a large volume of airline tickets, Expedia air travel is often less expensive than you'll find at many other travel outlets. They have many specially negotiated prices directly from the airlines and their sophisticated computer system allows them to notify potential customers when a desired airfare is lowered.
Another advantage to Expedia air travel is the convenience of booking your flights right from your computer. And, unlike visiting the individual airline sites, you can shop for a large number of airlines all at the same time – no switching back and forth between sites to compare prices. Expedia even has a "this week's travel deals" page showcasing the week's best discounts.
Expedia also offers a service to potential customers where they will send you an email or a text message when the airfare to your desired destination falls within your stated price range.
Disadvantages
While many times the savings will outweigh the fee, Expedia does charge a small handling fee – usually $5 - $10 per ticket – if you are just purchasing airfare (without an accompanying tour, cruise, or other travel arrangements). It's wise to keep this in mind when comparing prices.
As with all online travel agencies, there have been a small number of consumer complaints stemming from lost reservations, computer glitches during the booking process, and duplicate credit card charges.
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