AmyHuang
Blind testing online travel agents: Who's better?
Whether it's a short domestic trip or a month long international journey, more and more people are booking their holidays online. Just like other retail items, we are finding that online agents, as they have low business maintenance costs, are able to provide better prices by cutting their own commission from the airline/hotel suppliers to get the business, so its no surprise that consumers are taking advange of this and book online to save money.
So, since it's about saving money - let's see who does it better. I am going to test 2 of my favourite online travel websites- Zuji.com.au and Expedia.com.au, as well as a heavily advertised website: Webjet.com.au, with Virgin Blue's own holiday packages and compare it with a quote obtained by a traditional agent, just to see if it indeed is cheaper.
Test holiday: 2 adults, 29 Oct - 2 Nov 2010 - Sydney to Hamilton return flights with Virgin Blue, 4 nights at the Reef View hotel in a Coral Sea view room, breakfast daily.
Virgin Blue Holidays:
This holiday booked directly with Virgin Blue, cost a total package price of $2371.00 with no booking fee. The booking process was simple and I didn't have any problems using the website at all.
Zuji.com.au
Zuji.com.au is one of my favourites, however I did have a little trouble today using their website to book a package holiday. The Holiday link at the top couldn't process my request, and I had to book the flights and the hotels seperately.
So the same Virgin Blue flights were $348 return (carry on baggage only) per person, and the hotel for 4 nights was a total of $1636.00 which meant the total holiday booked would be $2332.00, with no booking fees.
Expedia.com.au
Expedia.com.au has always been great for me to research not just a straight forward return flight, but also flights with stop overs as well as multiple destinations. In this sense, it's already a website with many qualities the other websites don't have. My search today was straight forward and easy with the Holiday Packages link and the total package came to $2346.00 with no booking fee.
Webjet.com.au
Everyone knows Webjet.com.au - they heavily advertise that they will find you the cheapest airfares comparing all airlines (including low cost airlines) and they also pair up with Paypal to give discounts to Paypal users.
However, I found that finding an airfare is already very confusing on this website, with its grid airfare chart very hard to understand and moreover - they didn't have any hotels for Hamilton Island!!
So I couldn't get a price on the hotel, but the airfare also turned out to be more expensive than Zuji and Virgin Blue because of this clause:
A Webjet Processing Fee of $19.95 and Booking Price Guarantee of $9.95 applies per booking which can include multiple passengers and products.
The final payment page included the full airfare cost, plus a credit card surcharge of $14.00, plus a booking price guarantee (heck knows what this is) of $9.95, plus a Processing fee of $19.95, so the airfare cost a total of $739.90 for two, which is $43.90 more than booking the airfare with Zuji who has no fees.
Flight Centre
I also got a quote from the Flight Center near work, for the same package the quote came to $2328.00 and if I paid by credit card (which if you were to book on the websites you would too) the fee is 1.92%, and came to $2372.70. I enjoyed chatting to the agent about our holiday during this process. When I mentioned that I had found the same package on Zuji for $2332 without booking fees, the agent immediately offered to take a dollar off the Zuji price for the package to honour the Flight Centre price guarantee, and offered to give me a $20 gift voucher for any future bookings.
I remember a week ago I read an article criticising traditional travel agents having 'hidden commissions' and hence always more expensive than online. While there are definitely some mal-practicing agents out there, I believe agents from large agency organisations do have a code of practice to adhere to, and hence more trustworthy. Also, from this test we can see that prices do differ, but not by very much, and Webjet is one example of an online agent that actually has charges that you can't see until you get to the payment page, and knowing this I would never book with them. Zuji and Expedia turn out to be even cheaper than Virgin Blue themselves, with Zuji cheaper by $14 to Expedia.
I know that prices may differ case by case, some agents do get different rates for different areas from time to time, so it is definitely good to shop around, even between the online agencies. Definitely look out for those booking fees, because sometimes it may just be worth booking through a traditional travel agent so at least there is someone to talk to, rather than trying to get hold of a customer service clerk on the 1800/1300 number provided, and be listening to on-hold music for half an hour.
So, since it's about saving money - let's see who does it better. I am going to test 2 of my favourite online travel websites- Zuji.com.au and Expedia.com.au, as well as a heavily advertised website: Webjet.com.au, with Virgin Blue's own holiday packages and compare it with a quote obtained by a traditional agent, just to see if it indeed is cheaper.
Test holiday: 2 adults, 29 Oct - 2 Nov 2010 - Sydney to Hamilton return flights with Virgin Blue, 4 nights at the Reef View hotel in a Coral Sea view room, breakfast daily.
Virgin Blue Holidays:
This holiday booked directly with Virgin Blue, cost a total package price of $2371.00 with no booking fee. The booking process was simple and I didn't have any problems using the website at all.
Zuji.com.au
Zuji.com.au is one of my favourites, however I did have a little trouble today using their website to book a package holiday. The Holiday link at the top couldn't process my request, and I had to book the flights and the hotels seperately.
So the same Virgin Blue flights were $348 return (carry on baggage only) per person, and the hotel for 4 nights was a total of $1636.00 which meant the total holiday booked would be $2332.00, with no booking fees.
Expedia.com.au
Expedia.com.au has always been great for me to research not just a straight forward return flight, but also flights with stop overs as well as multiple destinations. In this sense, it's already a website with many qualities the other websites don't have. My search today was straight forward and easy with the Holiday Packages link and the total package came to $2346.00 with no booking fee.
Webjet.com.au
Everyone knows Webjet.com.au - they heavily advertise that they will find you the cheapest airfares comparing all airlines (including low cost airlines) and they also pair up with Paypal to give discounts to Paypal users.
However, I found that finding an airfare is already very confusing on this website, with its grid airfare chart very hard to understand and moreover - they didn't have any hotels for Hamilton Island!!
So I couldn't get a price on the hotel, but the airfare also turned out to be more expensive than Zuji and Virgin Blue because of this clause:
A Webjet Processing Fee of $19.95 and Booking Price Guarantee of $9.95 applies per booking which can include multiple passengers and products.
The final payment page included the full airfare cost, plus a credit card surcharge of $14.00, plus a booking price guarantee (heck knows what this is) of $9.95, plus a Processing fee of $19.95, so the airfare cost a total of $739.90 for two, which is $43.90 more than booking the airfare with Zuji who has no fees.
Flight Centre
I also got a quote from the Flight Center near work, for the same package the quote came to $2328.00 and if I paid by credit card (which if you were to book on the websites you would too) the fee is 1.92%, and came to $2372.70. I enjoyed chatting to the agent about our holiday during this process. When I mentioned that I had found the same package on Zuji for $2332 without booking fees, the agent immediately offered to take a dollar off the Zuji price for the package to honour the Flight Centre price guarantee, and offered to give me a $20 gift voucher for any future bookings.
I remember a week ago I read an article criticising traditional travel agents having 'hidden commissions' and hence always more expensive than online. While there are definitely some mal-practicing agents out there, I believe agents from large agency organisations do have a code of practice to adhere to, and hence more trustworthy. Also, from this test we can see that prices do differ, but not by very much, and Webjet is one example of an online agent that actually has charges that you can't see until you get to the payment page, and knowing this I would never book with them. Zuji and Expedia turn out to be even cheaper than Virgin Blue themselves, with Zuji cheaper by $14 to Expedia.
I know that prices may differ case by case, some agents do get different rates for different areas from time to time, so it is definitely good to shop around, even between the online agencies. Definitely look out for those booking fees, because sometimes it may just be worth booking through a traditional travel agent so at least there is someone to talk to, rather than trying to get hold of a customer service clerk on the 1800/1300 number provided, and be listening to on-hold music for half an hour.
