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Originally Posted by Mrs. Funk
Has anybody used travel sites like expedia.com, travelocity.com, priceline.com etc. etc.? As far as price for tickets to Paris, they're great. But how are they on reliability? Not screwing everything up? etc. etc.
Any personal experience would be great. Thanks!
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I have used priceline for air tickets but it was a trip for which I didn't particularly care about the specific itinerary. Because you can't pick your times (at least not back when I used them) I generally avoid them. You might get a weird connection hundreds of miles out of your way or a very long layover, etc. Often, time is money.
Usually I use Orbitz to scout out the pricing. Usually I then go to the airline's site, particularly if its one that I have Freq Flier Miles on. Also check Southwest because they don't participate in Orbitz. Also by using the airline directly you can leave more contact info -- once a flight was cancelled on us and Mrs hyrum and I almost were stuck overnight at the Albucracky airport. Delta left us a message on our home phone, now they have space for up to 4 phones.
For hotels and cars I often use HotWire. If you are not choosey on the brand of hotel or car rental firm, you can often get some great deals. Its one of those things where you pick the area (or car size) and they show the deals without naming the firm. You see that when you buy -- and you pay in advance, no refunds. So be sure you are actually going! I book cars this way 2-3 days ahead. Hotel no more than a week or so.
One of my colleagues is a very big fan of Expedia for hotels -- one good thing that they have on their site is an area for costumer reviews and comments. Beware, though, people are more likely to post comments if something went wrong -- if there is one post saying the staff was rude, it wouldn't stop me from booking there.