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Orbitzal Reaction
Kirby's Korner · July 21, 2000

Sometime in the next several months, consumers may have one more Web site to go to for buying travel -- Orbitz.

The site promises to provide the most complete catalog of airfares available online -- along with hotel and car reservations -- including airfares that until now have appeared only on individual airline Web sites.

But troubles remain for the seven-month-old company, with nearly every type of travel industry interest except the airlines aligned against it. It's still too early to tell how everything will shake out -- and how consumers will benefit, no matter which side wins.

Orbitz is the name chosen by a company chiefly owned by five airlines, which caused a fuss within the travel industry when its existence was first announced last November. (It caused a fuss here on Ticked.com, also, when I first wrote about it, so much so that I dedicated three subsequent columns -- here, here, and here -- to the subject.)

Orbitz may be the biggest boon consumers have seen since the first airline reservation was made through the Web. But its creation is the biggest public- and media-relations fiasco in the five years Web-based travel reservations have been available.

Much has happened since Orbitz was first announced. (If you want inside information, click here; if you're a traveler who couldn't care less about industry intrigue, forget the link and read on.)

This month, Orbitz announced its name and held a series of news conferences explaining its position.

Its most important statement is that it is a bona fide company owned (chiefly) by five airlines but managed by an independent group of people.

According to Orbitz, what we'll see on the site when it launches is the traditional published airline fares available to all travel agents intermingled with fares that have been available until now only on individual airline Web sites. This should save consumers the trouble of clicking around the Web to get the best rates.

The technology backbone is being supported by ITA Software and promises to provide many more options for air travel than we get from Travelocity.com or Expedia.com.

In fact, Orbitz said the discounted airfares must be presented to it in a fashion that makes them available to other travel agencies -- although, of course, it will be up to the individual airlines to decide if they want to make those fares available elsewhere.

But Orbitz has made several serious mistakes while unveiling itself. It has let us know about several parts of its structure, without letting us know about the rest. It has started a public-relations campaign without a media-savvy leader, relying instead on a Chief Technology Officer, Alex Zoghlin, who I find charming but others find arrogant. It has been so secretive about its ownership that the government is getting involved.

And it has chosen a name that I think speaks of travel (check out the logo for Expedia-owned Travelscape.com if you don't believe me) but others find silly.

Orbitz' hardest task will be convincing the travel industry that it is truly separate from its airline owners -- that it is, indeed, a genuine travel agency and that it doesn't get special breaks from its owners. I'm convinced. Any breaks Orbitz gets will be the choice of the airlines, not the fault of the Web site. Needless to say, others are skeptical.

But all of this may not matter. If Orbitz can deliver cheap fares in an easy manner, and if it has the money to tell consumers about itself, for the traveling public it will be out of this world.

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