Is Expedia Good For Booking Flights?
Expedia: "AA Good Option in Terms of Purchase of Flight Tickets?
Expedia is one of the biggest online travel agency in the world and its online brand is offering services to millions of customers. It is said that tens of millions of people use it per year to arrange flights, accommodations, car rentals, cruises, and travel packages. However, is Expedia really the best site for booking flights or is it just a general website that offers flights and other travel-related services? In assessing the Extender Construct in the context of Expedia as a flight booking portal, one needs to take the following factors into consideration:.
Pricing and Fees
Generally, ticket price is an important aspect that most travelers look at when they are choosing their mode of transport, especially when they are flying. Indeed, generally, Expedia airfares are quite affordable and are located in the same range of the airfares that can be obtained directly from the airline companies. It sources flights through multiple airlines and online travel agencies for the required flight inventory. However, there are times where you may not get the lowest price on the offer through the Expedia website. To some extent, it is good to compare the prices between some of them before booking so that one can get the best price.
Another point to note is that Expedia burdens you with hidden costs when you book flights. These can range from charges related to booking, selection of the seat, baggage and many others. The ticket prices may seem reasonable, but just the basic fare has a bunch of surcharges that make the overall booking costs higher. One should always pay attention to the actual details stated on booking platforms to determine what is offered in the base fare.
Ease of Use
These include the ability of most travelers using Expedia to search for and book flights easily. It has a website and applications for its mobile users where you just input your origin, destination, date of travel, and other factors. The platform then immediately presents options for flights and their fares, their durations, connections, airlines, and other settings; the filters and the sort functions assist in the selection of the most suitable flight.
At the time of check-out, when making a reservation, with Expedia you can choose and pay for services that are associated with the flight: seats, baggage, and other services. It is even noteworthy that in most cases the booking process itself does not even take more than a few minutes. Therefore, if you consider flight booking as a process you want to occur without a hitch, then Expedia has you sorted.
Breadth of Flight Options
Expedia could also be useful in the way that it offers a vast database of flight routes from numerous airlines around the world. It is likely that Expedia will have viable choices ready and waiting when you enter your preferred starting location and the destination and dates of your trip. If there is ever a situation where you have to look for flights that cover some routes that, for instance, connect through other airports, some obscure airlines, and so on, rest assured that Expedia will have some flights to present to you.
For more often domestic flights and for the most popular dates, you will have a chance to find almost all the main representatives of the airline industry. However, it is not perfect because some flights that should be involved are not always included in the search results and this is because not all flights from different airlines are involved. At times, it is advantageous to book directly off their website because it offers slightly more flight choices. However, regarding the breadth of options, Expedia is very helpful in most cases, providing you with a wide range of flights.
Cancellations and Changes
If a traveller has to cancel or make major changes to his/her flight post-booking through Expedia, then what? It is at this point that things can become a little annoying. Contrary to the general concerns, flight cancellation and major changes, such as name switches, are permitted by Expedia. But to get such, you are required to pass through their somewhat complicated procedures.
This means that you need to call their customer support team, which is very time-consuming as you spend most of the time on hold. Flight change and cancellation policies also fall under this category, and Expedia often has comparatively inflexible conditions compared to directly contacting the airline. The same applies to rebooking fees, change fees, or cancellation fees that you may be charged in case of any alterations to your booking. Yet, while the option is offered, expediting changes or cancellations to flights on expedia can prove quite challenging.
Customer Service
Customer service is available through email, phone or even a live chat on the website, with Expedia headquarters located in Bellevue, Washington. Phone calls present the issues of long waiting time before you can actually get to talk to an agent during the busy hours. However, the response time in the online chat and emails is much more acceptable. While trying to get support from Expedia, you will come across with an agent, and they are usually cooperative enough. Some things, such as issues concerning booking, for example or questions related to reservations, do indeed get sorted out.
However, Expedia lacks good and effective customer service as compared to many other competitors. Most of the time, customers have a number of complaints about long phone queues, lack of an ability to get answers to their problems by email/chat, and lack of access to the qualified representatives who would be able to solve complicated problems. That is why, while being rather helpful for the straightforward tasks, Expedia's customer service is going to make you irritated when you try to solve complicated flight booking issues.
Traveler Reviews
Reading some of the third-party consumer review sites that offer their consumers the chance to rate and post their experiences with the services they received from different sites, one can get the picture of the kind of experiences that consumers have when they book their flights through Expedia. On the other side of the coin, travelers note that they enjoy ease in booking, affordability of the flights, and most of all, the variety of flight options. However, some of the most frequently cited issues by users who gave a low rating are a lack of attention to the quality of customer service, hidden fees that significantly increase the overall cost of the flight, as well as issues related to flight changes or cancellations.
The general sense is that, while it does not completely stand out in terms of flight booking experience, Expedia can certainly hold its own. However, problems arise for the travelers in case they want to change or cancel their bookings or have any other grievances or problems after the booking phase. Reading over reviews assist in providing one with the right expectations when not solely relying on Expedia for key airline tickets.
Expedia Rewards Program
Expedia Company has several special features that can be considered to be an added advantage and one of them is the Expedia Rewards. You earn points every time you book through Expedia that can be later used to get a certain percentage off the cost of a package and so on. They also offer coupons and contests that are available to Rewards members only. However, to accumulate sufficient points that would justify the spending, one must spend a significant amount. In addition to this, Expedia also provides promotion offers where you sign up for the credit card with them and then use it to make bookings.
Therefore, although it probably isn't a sole selling point for the majority of travellers, the Rewards program gives that little bit extra encouragement to use Expedia over other similar booking websites. As long as you don't depend on gaining points right away, then this card is ideal for those who frequently do travel spending.
Is it worth using Expedia for the flight search and booking?
Despite all these, flight booking convenience, availability, and relatively cheap ticket prices make Expedia one of the world's leading OTAs today. If its goal was to be a place to go to get flights as soon as one wants the lowest possible prices, then again, Expedia does not disappoint. However, there are some rather obvious disadvantages, such as rather average and not very friendly customer service, hidden fees which are not always beneficial for the consumer, and rather challenging when it comes to changing or canceling an existing reservation.
For these reasons, it may not be viable to rely solely on Expedia when looking to book a flight for your next travel adventure. It makes perfectly sense to compare prices with other prominent booking platforms. Hence, travelers with flexible schedules or advance planning, those who may require service coordination before the actual trip, or those who are likely to make modifications to the bookings could stand to make a better deal by using the airline's website to book directly.
Thus, while sometimes it does not seem that Expedia does it, it indeed does provide people with simple and cheap airfare for many elemental travel scenarios. However, when it's the sole strategy in place, it can lead to negative consequences in situations where improved booking flexibility and travelers™ support are required. Use Expedia where and when you have to deal with the airlines, but make sure to develop other options for managing the flights that need more attention and the booking help should you need it.
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