travelocity

commentary Frequent fliers beware. Consider this a sort of travel warning.

Orbitz, the beleaguered service that aggregates air and hotel fare so users can compare prices via the Web, has again been caught trying to dupe customers.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Monday that Orbitz was hit with a $60,000 fine for violating rules prohibiting "deceptive price advertising." Seems the DOT imposes rules on how airfare prices can be displayed online. Orbitz and rivals, such as Travelocity and Expedia, are required to post the full price of an airline ticket in their ads. … Read more

Whether you're a novice traveler or a frequent flyer, the Hipmunk travel search app should be a breeze to handle. Simply type in your destination and departure cities and select your travel dates. Then select Coach, Business, or First class, and enter the number travelers. And that's it. The process is very similar to that of most travel apps and Web sites, plus it comes with some quick auto-complete suggestions, a super-smooth date selector, and uniquely visual interface.

After you fill in all the fields, Hipmunk goes off and searches through its database to bring up tons of … Read more

commentary Plenty of Web sites this holiday season are offering tips about how to shop online without getting burned by dishonest merchants or con men.

Here's my advice: if in doubt shop at Amazon.

Amazon isn't perfect. I don't know any perfect stores online or off. But after 15 years of providing consumers with a safe shopping experience on the Web, the e-tailing pioneer deserves some applause. Don't believe me? Just read the testimonial given by Vitaly Borker, the man who operates what is now likely the most notorious retail store on the Internet.

On Friday, … Read more

Update: Dec. 15, 2009 7:50 a.m.: To include US Airways in list of companies that have stopped using post-transaction companies.

Priceline, an online travel site accused by the government of selling customer credit card information to "scam" marketers, says it no longer has any relationship with those marketing firms.

Company spokesman Brian Ek said Priceline, perhaps best known as the "name your price" company, stopped using post-transaction firm Affinion sometime last month. The news was first reported by The Connecticut Post.

In May, the U.S. Senate launched a probe of the company, as … Read more

For years, baffled consumers looked to Visa, MasterCard, and American Express for answers when mysterious charges from "shadowy companies" began appearing on their credit card statements.

Even though all three card companies have rules designed to protect users from unauthorized charges as well as to weed out problem-plagued merchants, thousands of people appear to have complained to their card companies for years about three post-transaction marketing companies: Webloyalty, Vertrue, and Affinion. Perhaps as many as 30 million people were affected, according to a government report.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation launched an investigation … Read more

Another e-tailer criticized by federal lawmakers two weeks ago for profiting from "misleading" and "deceptive" marketing practices appears to be rethinking its position.

VistaPrint, an online printing company, announced Monday it has "terminated its contract" with Vertrue, a so-called post-transaction marketing company that has come under scrutiny along with competitors Affinion and Webloyalty. This summer, the U.S. Senate Commerce committee began looking into scores of consumer complaints about the marketers--some going back years.

VistaPrint said in a statement that the company's contract with Vertrue ends December 20.

The three Connecticut-based marketing firms … Read more

Web shoppers are in need of a digital-age Ralph Nader, the kind of firebrand consumer advocate who can focus public scorn on unscrupulous merchants.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Commerce committee revealed that some of the Web's best-known retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Hotwire, Yahoo, Pizza Hut, Travelocity, Fandango, and Victoria's Secret, were part of a dubious marketing operation designed to mislead their own customers.

Serious questions about who's policing e-commerce were raised after the Commerce committee issued a report detailing how three marketing firms, Affinion, Webloyalty, and Vertrue, generated $1.4 billion with the help … Read more

Buying airfare online continues to get cheaper.

Web travel sites Orbitz and Travelocity have followed Expedia in forgoing booking fees they had charged for domestic and international flights.

On Monday, Orbitz announced that it had permanently done away with the fees, which range from $7 to $12, and Travelocity said it would continue to waive the fees.

The slumping economy has forced vacationers and business travelers to stick closer to home this year. Online travel services are reducing prices in the hope that they can make up the lost revenue from a fee reduction in volume, according to a report … Read more

With over 9,000 employees and over $3 billion in annual revenue, Sabre Holdings is a customer worth having. It is, however, also a very demanding company: with websites Travelocity.com, Lastminute.com, and others, even a little downtime costs the company tens of millions of dollars.

It is therefore instructive that Sabre Holdings has decided to standardize on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, dumping the proprietary Unix systems it had been using. In case someone within your organization makes the suggestion that open source can't deliver best-in-class performance, you might want to refer them to this statement by Robert … Read more