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Expedia axes phone booking fees

By: Jerry LimoneNovember 05, 2009

Expedia has eliminated all phone booking fees, effective immediately.

"Expedia.com is proud to stand up for the rights of phone-using Americans," said Tim MacDonald, general manager of Expedia.com.

Priceline.com already doesn't charge for phone bookings on published-price hotels, vacation packages, rental cars and cruises.

Travelocity and Orbitz do charge phone booking fees. However, Orbitz spokesman Brian Hoyt noted that Orbitz does not charge booking fees if customers book vacation packages by phone.

The "vast majority" of Orbitz air bookings are completed online, and Orbitz has no online booking fee, noted Hoyt. 

As to whether Orbitz would match Expedia's across-the-board elimination of phone booking fees, Hoyt said Orbitz would examine Expedia's move. 

"We intend to be one of the most competitive places to book travel online," Hoyt said.

Expedia's dropping of phone booking fees follows the elimination of other fees by Expedia this year. In March, the website scrapped online booking fees for airline tickets, a policy that was matched by Travelocity and Orbitz. (Priceline eliminated air booking fees in late 2007.)

Expedia eliminated change and cancellation fees on hotel, car rental and cruise reservations in May. Cruise booking fees were dropped in October.

The report was amended to add comments by Orbitz.

From 1 to 5 of 6 Comment(s)

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#6November 13, 2009
Priceline charges a booking fee for cruise reservations, it's $24.99. It's charged whether the customer books online or over the phone
#5November 06, 2009
It used used to be that what agencies sold was their customer service,everyone was able to offer customers the same products and what made a customer chose them was the customer service they provided. I worked for Expedia in a department where I was able to provide my 20 plus years of customer service and I can tell you that isn't what they pride themselves on. They are driving out the smaller agencies, taking their business out of the US to Canada, Europe,.. in these hard times whether or not you pay an extra $5 is not going to determine whether you take a vacation. Be real. Their advertising is so misleading, they have no cancelation fee's, I get people telling me all the time, why are your tickets non-refundable, Exedia's aren't. Let travel agents go back to booking travel and not people who know nothing about it. That would do a lot for the unemployment rate in this country.
#4November 06, 2009
Money is coming in from somewhere. Must be airline commissions. Stolen from traditional travel agents.
#3November 06, 2009
sad to see that an industry that has been completely chopped up has no value in customer service. Nice one saying published fares and hotels....i don't think i have ever paid for the rate on the back of the hotel door that is published. Just sad, sad to see online companies taking away from the little agencies that give a service to the client.
#2November 06, 2009
The travel industry has become laughable of late. Imagine walking into Macy's and shopping for a coffee maker. You find the ultimate coffee maker and walk to a cashier station. The assistant proceeds to ring up the purchase. Let's see the MSRP is 89.95, stocking fee is 13.52, building rent surcharge 7.98, electric surcharge fee 10.39, cashier station fee 5.00, sales tax 10.15 and the non-returnable total is 136.99 using credit only. The assistant explains that that the coffee maker is non-returnable but if you purchase Return Convenience Plan at the time of sale for an additional 28.99 you are able to return the product and have the MSRP refunded. The question beckons why can the Travel Industry get away with these anti-consumer and hostile business practices? My advice, buy a head turning vehicle, you'll help the US economy and leave the ridiculousness of the Travel Industry behind.
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