Monday, November 15, 2004

Flying Overseas? Book your Travel There too!

Consumer Tip: Slow to respond U.S. sites may be overcharging for the cheapest fares. If your loooking to travel overseas, try booking your travel through a foreign based travel site!

The three major U.S. online travel sites fare worse than their European counterparts in finding the cheapest international air fares, according to a study released Friday.
When compared with 20 travel sites in seven countries, the U.S. sites of Expedia Inc., Orbitz Inc. and Travelocity.com LP fell behind travel sites for Belgium, Denmark and Germany.

The best performer was a little-known Belgian site, Travelprice, which provided the lowest price 49 percent of the time, according to the report (here in PDF form) from Consumer Reports WebWatch, a Yonkers, N.Y.-based project of the Consumers Union.
"For Americans wondering if better online travel deals are available outside the U.S., this project demonstrates that the answer is clearly yes," the report states. "It's also clear bargains await U.S. shoppers who can successfully deal with the language and currency issues."