Kaffy Mintcake

Hi all,

I've been working on something which involves listing what customers want from an online travel website (think Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, etc.)

Here's my preliminary list:

Ability to customize to user
Price
Variety/choice
Flexibility
Convenience
Ease of use (related to website)
Information
Security (more of a requirement)
Speed (how quickly can you accomplish what you came to do)
Familiarity with the brand/company

Have I left out anything really significant? Also - which of these would you yourself deem to be more/less important? If you had to list 3 items that would be most important to you - what would they be?

Thanks!

Kathy

BigDavyG

You're forgetting about customer service / aftersales care.
I'm not sure if it is important to customers or not, but it is what orbitz attempt to build their brand on.

Kaffy Mintcake

Thank you Dave - I'm least familiar with Orbitz - that's very helpful.

Patrick Hasler

We have tried them all ...... Every time we get far better deals from the airlines own site and it's always cheaper

Kaffy Mintcake

So would you say price is the most important to you then? That's what I would think would make their business tough ... you can use their sites to research but it doesn't mean you have to buy from them.

BigDavyG

That's because all the OTA's charge service fees (except for priceline I think) that the airlines own sites do not have to.
Prob not worth booking through an OTA unless you are after a package.

Kaffy Mintcake

You can get an excellent deal on Priceline - but have to be willing to put the deal above pretty much everything else.

BigDavyG

Actually it wasn't that stupid "bidding" facility on priceline that I was talking about, just booking the flight/hotel that you actually want.

ugacrew

You can get a good deal but your schedule is out of your hands then. It's more a trade off if anything. You're not guaranteed n/s or a reasonable time of departure.

Speaking on the subject..the best thing I love about a travel site is their discounts that they offer for some of their vendors. I love the fact that Travelocity paid for Golden Canopy service through Hertz. It makes a huge difference that I don't have to stand in line to get my car. I can just walk up to the car in the lot and drive off. Good deal there. I also love a site that makes price comparison easy. I like a grid presentation a'la Southwest Airlines (Love that airline). Going off topic here but Southwest Airlines is trying out unlimited broadband service on four of their flights. It should be a good thing for those on the long haul flights. Back on topic... One last thing I love about travel sites is good destination information to help with building itineraries.

Poppy girl

For me I like an easy site to navigate and the ability to change my options without having to return to the home page.

The Price and definately a live person to get customer service from.

But I agree with Patrick that 9 times out of 10 the airlines own web-site is the best option.

Patrick Hasler

I will always make sure the plane involved has at least 4 engines

BA say two engines are safe

Ok if thats the case I seem to remember the 777 crash landing at Heathrow had both engines fail !

When we came back from England last visit 1 engine failed Thank God there were another 3

Poppy girl

Never really believed this but when I did my Flight attendent training in the mid 90's I was taught the safety procedures on the Airbus A320 and the Tristar and I always remeber the trainer telling us that a Tristar has the capability if the engines fail to glide down umm I don't think thats possible personally.
Why do they give life jackets? piece of mind a I guess, how many planes land on water, it has happened but not many...if its going down its going down from 39,000 ft FINITO enjoy your flight

ugacrew

Man you are a scaredy cat. People fly on 2 engine jets all the time and nothing happens. :P

Jerseygirl

Aye water, concrete it's all the same if you're falling from tens of thousands of feet. BTW it's only the last 1/4" that matters.

Poppy girl

Yep and if that plane drops at 39,000 feet you will be dust before you get that far.