Travelocity.com and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. are reportedly planning to stop charging a fee when customers book airline tickets over the Internet.

Published: 01 Jun 2009

Travelocity.com and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. are reportedly planning to stop charging a fee when customers book airline tickets over the Internet.

Travelocity.com and Orbitz Worldwide Inc. are reportedly planning to stop charging a fee when customers book airline tickets over the Internet.

According to a report filed by The Wall Street Journal, Travelocity and Orbitz will still charge the fee on multi-carrier itineraries and flights originating outside the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Since its no-fee promotion started in March, Travelocity has seen an increase in the number of people booking airline tickets, as well as an increase in the number of people clicking through to purchase other types of travel, said Tracey Weber, president of Travelocity North America.

The report added that Travelocity also plans to make permanent a price guarantee on travel packages booked on the site. Under its PriceGuardian programme, which began as a temporary promotion, the site promises to refund a price difference from $10 to $500 if another Travelocity customer buys the same package at a lower price at a later date.

Last week, Expedia.com made changes to its service policies, eliminating change fees and cancel fees on all hotel, car rental and cruise reservations and on virtually all flight reservations. In addition, Expedia.com no longer charges online air booking fees.

Role of online intermediaries

Online intermediaries continue to play a vital role in the travel supply chain and in 2008 they generated an estimated US$45,141 million in revenue from US airline consumers or 34 percent of the online airline market, according to EyeforTravel Research’s North America Online Travel Report 2009.

“By 2012, we expect this share to decline marginally but maintain about a third of US online airline expenditure. It is therefore important to plan mixed distribution strategies for this market,” said Amy Scarth, Head of Research at EyeforTravel.

The report has revealed that online intermediaries have a higher penetration of the online market for outbound travel. For example, in 2008 about 30 percent of online domestic travel expenditure was via online intermediaries and 40 percent of online outbound travel expenditure.

Overall, the online penetration of the US airline market reached an estimated 54 percent in 2008. Airline suppliers and intermediaries have successfully pushed the use of online channels year on year. “In 2009 it is expected that just over 60 percent of the US airline market will be online and this is also expected to grow further to reach almost 70 percent by 2012,” said Scarth.

EyeforTravel Research’s North America Online Travel Report 2009

For more info, contact:
Amy Scarth
+44(0)207 3757545
or info@eyefortravelresearch.com