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The most heavily used booking sites—Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity—have few exclusives with their vendors, who are trying to drive more customer traffic to their own sites. This year, our tests revealed a decrease in price differences among the major bookers, and, in many cases, better deals on the individual sites of airlines, hotels, and car-rental agencies. But the on-line travel agents continue to grow, because of what they do well: vacation packages—bundled airline tickets, hotel rooms, and car rentals that you put together yourself—and increasingly flexible search tools. Here's the latest news:
EXPEDIA
Price Test $202 for a round-trip flight from JFK to LAX Oct. 8-17; $339 a night at the W Los Angeles Westwood
Best New Feature Its package section has a calculator, so you can figure out how much more you'd be spending if you bought all the components separately
Flexible Searches Only for most popular domestic flights. But there's a flexible hotel search option and a calendar showing the range of prices for specific dates
Car Rentals Following Travelocity's lead, Expedia has rolled out "total pricing" (i.e., the price includes taxes and fees)
ORBITZ
Price Test $202 for a round-trip flight from JFK to LAX Oct. 8-17; $284 a night at the W Los Angeles Westwood
Best New Feature Following a redesign, the site now lets you search for your return flight first, but will still show you round-trip fares to help you keep the price low
Flexible Searches For weekend trips (all weekends in a given month), flexible stays (by number of days), and bonus days (up to three days on either side of your chosen dates)
Car Rentals Orbitz, too, offers "total pricing." The site searches 22 car-rental companies worldwide; Travelocity and Expedia offer 11 each
TRAVELOCITY
Price Test $203 for a round-trip flight from JFK to LAX Oct. 8-17; $288 a night at the W Los Angeles Westwood
Best New Feature When booking a cruise and flight together, you can choose from the site's regular flight options rather than having to buy a pre-selected flight
Flexible Searches For both domestic and international flights, by the lowest prices first, but you must click through multiple windows to see all your options
Car Rentals The first of the three to introduce "total pricing." Search for a rental location by address, zip code, or local attraction
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