"Choice" analysis of online airline booking sites

[RooFlyer]

Choice 'magazine' has released an update of the pros and cons of booking airline tickets via 'comparison' web sites such as Webjet, Zuji, Expedia etc. its subscription, so I'll only make elected quotes (It'll probably be in tomorrow's papers if you look around). But the conclusions are interesting, compared to booking direct with the airline.

The article "Comparing Flight prices Online" released today says:

To find out if third-party sites will give you a better deal, we compared the prices of eight flights booked direct through the airline, with those on a range of third-party sites that were popular in search results for cheap flights. We checked prices on Zuji, Wotif, eDreams, BYOjet, Bestjet, Helloworld, STATravel, Last minute, Expedia, Webjet, Flight Centre and travel.com.au.

What we found:

• Flights were often available for less, or at least the same price, directly through the airline, without the hassle of a third party.
• When flights were cheaper through a third party, the price savings were often minimal. However, there were two instances where prices were more than $100 lower.

Some sites search more airlines than others, so you may or may not be shown the cheapest airline flying that route, depending on the site you use.

They also discussed of course the fees and penalties which usually go with these third party sites if you make changes.

Cheap flights turn expensive

Often flights that appear to be cheaper online turn out to be more expensive once booking and payment fees are added. Our spot check found that the popular booking site Webjet was consistently more expensive than booking directly due to booking fees.

An Airline Website buying Guide of September 2014 from Choice said:

Domestic
Flight comparison sites are useful for comparing the five major domestic carriers across your preferred dates, but in most cases you'll be better off using them only to compare, then going directly to the website of the airline with the lowest quoted price. That way, you'll avoid the steep fees that some sites charge.

International
International flights are a different story. With dozens more carriers in play, we found savings of up to 25% – hundreds of dollars – by using the comparison sites not just to compare, but also to book. One flight, for example, quoted a competitive Sydney-London return flight with two carriers – but when we checked those carriers' sites directly, we found they quoted a much higher price or they'd sold out.

 

[Moopere]

I'll reasonably often use these types of sites for international flights - contrary to the suggestion above if I do go with a booking site its often to avoid the over-the-top booking fee's for credit cards on airlines direct booking sites, though I never use Webjet as I've never yet found them to have a cheaper fare once all inclusions are added. Aside from avoiding the booking fee, the other main reason is so that I can use Amex ... its surprising to me how many airline booking sites won't accept Amex ... off the top of my head RJ, CZ fall into this category.

If the price, including everything is about the same +-50 bucks I'll generally side with the airlines site - its just easier to deal with problems that way I've found.

I had an interesting problem recently, just a few weeks ago actually, where the deep discount Y tickets I needed, out of HKG, suddenly disappeared from the airlines site - full plane I figured, however, feeling feisty, I wobbled off to Travelocity, found the flight I needed at the same price (as it was when previously available) and booked with Amex and no additional booking fees - happy camper


Edit: Oh, and by the by, although not a booking site, I'm finding that I'm using google flights more and more often. Really helps to quickly cut away the masses and get to within cooee of the right flight/airline/price for further investigation.

 

[clazman]

Americans news had a article yesterday of airlines removing the ability for online booking sites from accessing all available seats and fares

 

[Mattg]

I'd pretty much agree with most of that.

What I want to know is: how is Webjet still in business??

Often flights that appear to be cheaper online turn out to be more expensive once booking and payment fees are added. Our spot check found that the popular booking site Webjet was consistently more expensive than booking directly due to booking fees.

 

[albatross710]

I think what Choice is showing is that people need to continue with a variety of platforms to tweek the systems and find the anomalies that suit each individual travels, it's not always the price.

I usually search Skyscanner and ITA Matrix. I still like ITA Matrix as it gives the +- 2 days search option which will highlight a fare that might not be apparent if searching specific dates.

Alby

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I'd pretty much agree with most of that.

What I want to know is: how is Webjet still in business??

Because they are extremely deceptive in the way they advertise the airfares so on the home page it appears that booking through Webjet is the same price as direct with the airlines until you continue to make the booking in good faith unaware of the ridiculous fees and charges that are added when you proceed with the booking.

If you were to ask the people who actually use Webjet if they knew how much more expensive it was to book through them versus direct with the airlines I'm sure just about all of them would have no idea.

 

[dajop]

I usually search Skyscanner and ITA Matrix. I still like ITA Matrix as it gives the +- 2 days search option which will highlight a fare that might not be apparent if searching specific dates.

I use kayak in same manner. I usually try several different ticketing points as well either by changing country in settings if using kayak app (or using full website, go to a few different sites, such as kayak.de, kayak.br, kayak.com.au, kayak.sg etc). In addition to the ongoing .br mistake fares, I've made savings several times by using different ticketing points to websites in the country of departure (and of course, more often, made savings by booking in the country of departure, rather than from, for example an Australian or in my instance Singaporean website).

 

[Renato1]

What I want to know is: how is Webjet still in business??

From people using Flybuy points maybe?
Regards,
Renato

 

[chelzmalee]

All online booking sites still exist because there's people out there who don't do their research. A quick search on TripAdvisor for "eDreams" will tell you that.

That said, I don't think I've ever used one. I've either taken the lowest price they offer to Flight Centre or just booked direct with the airline. Booking direct makes life easier should I need a change.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I gotta plus STA here again. Searching for fares to the USA last month for a friend, STA was several hundred dollars cheaper on the major carriers than going direct. Pretty amazing.

 

[Boca68]

I usually only use them for comparsion proposes. But, on one occasion last year, I was searching for a specific flight to Santiago. Basically, QF quoted $2.2k+, LAN $1.8k+, same flight on webjet $1.5k.

It was the exact same flights, really the decision was easy for that one. It was a QF codeshare on LAN metal. I even tried calling QF to see if it would match it. And LAN was impossible to get to speak to anyone,gave up in the end. No success. Booked via Webjet.

But, in general, I agree with Choice article.

 

[burmans]

Choice 'magazine' has released an update of the pros and cons of booking airline tickets via 'comparison' web sites such as Webjet, Zuji, Expedia etc. its subscription, so I'll only make elected quotes (It'll probably be in tomorrow's papers if you look around). But the conclusions are interesting, compared to booking direct with the airline.

The article "Comparing Flight prices Online" released today says:




They also discussed of course the fees and penalties which usually go with these third party sites if you make changes.




An Airline Website buying Guide of September 2014 from Choice said:

I'd pretty much agree with most of that.

What I want to know is: how is Webjet still in business??

How many times has this question been asked. The answer is the same reason people buy stuff at 7/11, it may be more expensive but it's convenient. Not everyone in Australia is a bargain buyer or AFF member and knows the URLs of all the airlines direct sites.

The fact I didn't agree with this isn't blinding me to the fact that quite a few people find this sort of site useful, even with the fees.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Don't know that I've ever seen a fair or reliable choice comparison report. Every one I've seen draws extremely facile and often unfounded conclusions.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How many times has this question been asked. The answer is the same reason people buy stuff at 7/11, it may be more expensive but it's convenient. Not everyone in Australia is a bargain buyer or AFF member and knows the URLs of all the airlines direct sites.

The fact I didn't agree with this isn't blinding me to the fact that quite a few people find this sort of site useful, even with the fees.

I think sit's precisely because they are bargain buyers that they go to webjet.

[In 99% of cases] I don't believe any savvy buyers would use webjet - the $30 'fare lock guarantee' alone means you'd need to value your time pretty highly to save the one minute it takes to go to the airline site direct and book there.

 

[burmans]

I think sit's precisely because they are bargain buyers that they go to webjet.

[In 99% of cases] I don't believe any savvy buyers would use webjet - the $30 'fare lock guarantee' alone means you'd need to value your time pretty highly to save the one minute it takes to go to the airline site direct and book there.

I dont think savvy buyers would use webjet either but 95% of the general public are not savvy buyers and hence it would take them considerably longer to first find and then use the site.

Personally I dont feel much of a need to analyse webject but for some reason I always get annoyyed when I read the "I dont understand ...." line. In my strong view the usual reason people dont understand virtually anything is because they dont spend a lot of time trying to! The view that you wouldnt use something therefore you cant understand why others will is just a sign of a closed mind IMO.

Clearly people do use webjet in this case (and I dont mean just to locate but not buy the airfare), look at their financials, every year they are getting more and more volume of people actually using them. Why, well I can only suggest if people spent a little time trying to understand why it would help, a determined refusal to understand never helped anyone understand anything. This is of course a fact that applies well beyond this particular thread!