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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Agency Action
Kirby's Korner · April 14, 2000

I'm taking a trip.

It's a typical business trip. I'm traveling from the Washington area to Dallas, mid-week, and returning two days later. No Saturday night stayover. The only thing that saves it from standard business travel restrictions is that I'm able to book it more than 21 days ahead.

One added restriction, although it's not too unusual in this case, is that I have to land at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Love Field is out.

I don't care which airline I fly, and I don't care which airport I fly out of. The Washington area is blessed with three airports convenient to both my house and my work. National -- pardon me, it's now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport -- would be handiest, but it's usually the priciest, so I'll settle for either Dulles or Baltimore-Washington.

Although price is important, I have a schedule to keep. I'd like to leave mid-afternoon from Washington and leave Dallas mid-afternoon two days later.

I call my travel agent. She has some of my preferences written down and knows others from her dealings with me. She checks options while I scribble. The first itinerary she tries prices at $1,500; without even hesitating she tries again.

The second itinerary has me leaving a little earlier than I'd like and returning a little later than I'd prefer, but it's $309. I tell her to make the reservation. With her $15 fee, my bill comes to $324.

Although I've already committed myself, I decide to check out major online travel agencies. I do quick searches on 1travel.com, Expedia.com, the old Internet Travel Network location, Preview Travel, Travelocity.com, Trip.com, and Trip.com's IntelliTrip search engine.

As much as I think I know the industry, the results surprise me.

(Caveats abound here. I don't claim my results to be conclusive, but they are instructive. All searches were conducted within a 45-minute window. All used the online agencies' "lowest fare" or "quick fare" features when possible. I ordered the itineraries returned to me based on price. I requested an afternoon flight out of Dulles and an evening return from DFW -- because of what I booked through my agent -- or, when I had to indicate a time, a noon flight out and a 6 p.m. return.)

(And, yes, Travelocity's purchase of Preview Travel is now complete, but the company plans on maintaining both Web sites until the first of June or so.)

(And I've eliminated Trip.com and 1travel.com from the analysis below. Neither offered an easy way to see a complete itinerary without choosing an outbound flight first; 1travel's Farebeater discount travel service was of no help for this trip.)

The good news is that, with only one exception discussed below, all online agencies that suggested the same itinerary offered the same price. This contradicts every article I've seen in the mainstream press comparing pricing on the online services; without exception, they complain that -- for example -- Expedia couldn't match Travelocity's price, or Travelocity couldn't match Preview Travel's.

Again with one exception, the prices ranged from $347 to $1336. The lowest fare exceeded what I paid my real-world agent by $23, but the highest was nearly $200 below what I would have paid had I taken her first suggestion.

Five carriers were represented in the 22 different itineraries suggested to me, with Delta Air Lines having the most itineraries, all with layovers, at seven, and US Airways the fewest -- but also the cheapest -- at two. AirTran, American Airlines, and United Airlines also were represented.

Three of the itineraries, including the cheapest, showed up on three sites; two showed up on two sites; and 17 showed up on only one site each. It pays to shop around.

Expedia, Preview Travel, and Travelocity each offered the cheapest fare, from US Airways. Preview Travel had the two cheapest fares; Travelocity both the cheapest and the most expensive. Travelocity offered nine itineraries on four carriers; Preview Travel and ITN each had six itineraries on four carriers; and Expedia had seven itineraries on two carriers. No agency presented flights on all five carriers that eventually showed up.

None of the online agencies were as easy to deal with as my human agent. All required more information from me than she did. And until bandwidth and -- especially -- computing and programming power improve tremendously, they'll continue to need the nursing.

The major surprise in this research was IntelliTrip, which found a Delta Air Lines flight that almost precisely matched the departure times of the direct American Airlines flight I booked. The major difference -- and it is a major difference -- is a short layover in Atlanta on both the outbound and return trips. But the price was only $296. The identical itinerary appeared on both ITN and Preview Travel priced at $358.

Because of the layover and the small difference in price, I would have opted for the American flight anyway. But because of the difference in price between IntelliTrip and the other online agencies, I'll try IntelliTrip again before I look elsewhere online.

IntelliTrip accesses prices directly from Web sites of participating airlines and other travel providers. Delta may have imposed some conditions that would make the $296 price unattractive; I didn't bother to look. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited by law. Under penalty of law, this tag is not to be removed.

I'm not a statistician, and I don't play one on the Web, so I'll leave conclusions to you. But based on this experience, I have several suggestions:

  • If you like your human agent, don't be quick to give her up.

  • If you book online, try several different locations.

  • Check out IntelliTrip. 1travel's Farebeater looks promising, too, although it didn't pan out this time.

  • Demand that the airlines explain why the same basic trip can vary in cost from $300 to $1500. And let me know when you get a satisfactory answer.

David Kirby is the editor of Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.