Expedia to Book Travel

[DCLonghorn]

Looking at a couple resorts in the Turks and Caicos Islands and Expedia has some good prices and reviews. Anyone use Expedia to book travel? If so, was your experience positive? Are the prices listed the correct price without tax etc.? Anything I need to look out for? Their airfare seems really high so will probably just use them for hotel reservations. Other site suggestions welcomed.

 

[Macanudo]

kayak.com

You have to be careful when using the travel websites because they don't always make it easy to figure out what the taxes and fees are going to be.

 

[DCLonghorn]

Yes, I use Kayak.com for airline tickets. Its an awesome site.

 

[defroach]

Ive never had a problem with orbitz/expedia/travelocity on booking travel, just go by teh final price and it should include everything (in my experience it has, and have never had anyone trying to collect more money when I get there)

 

[Tandoori Horn]

Just bought RT tickets to Amsterdam via Expedia a couple of weeks ago. Worked really well, no BS.

 

[DCLonghorn]

Expedia, Travel Advisor, Priceline, etc. have the same price as listed on the hotel website. The hotel website does not list all charges, i.e taxes, like Priceline and Expedia.

 

[KazooMan]

One thing to remember - when a travel site says "Taxes and Fees" what they are doing is estimating what your taxes will be on the travel, and then ADDING THEIR FEE. If you read the small print, you will find that your are paying for using this "free" travel service. So yes, you get a more accurate total of all of your fees, including taxes - but you are also paying for the travel service's profit. If you call the hotel/resort, and tell them the price listed on the travel service, you can sometimes get a price break (since they don't have to pay the travel service). Worth a try - what do you have to lose except the cost of the phone call?

Not to mention the fact that it is only quasi-legal for the travel service to collect, as part of their payment, "taxes." Allegedly that tax money is passed on to the hotel/resort/airline/whatever, for them to pay the government. However, there are laws in most states that say that if you collect tax money, or even advertise that part of what you are collecting is for taxes, then YOU owe the government that money. An interesting civil case, for all of you state attorney types out there...

 

[DCLonghorn]

I like to use travel sites to find flight numbers and then go to the airlines website and find the same flights. I would rather deal with the airline or hotel/resort directly when purchasing so that I can get a confirmation number from them.