Expedia.com Review

Travel is an important part of my life and I have utilized most every travel service on the internet at some point. One web site that I seem to turn to more than any other is Expedia.com. This on- line travel service offers quick flight searches, competitive pricing, and several other services to assist the traveler in finding the best deals.

Web Site Commentary:

Expedia.com is a full- service travel web site and it can be used to search for flights, cruises, rental cars, lodging, and special activities. The search functions work like they do in other sites and they ask enough information to find a list of matches for your desired flight, cruise, etc., without getting too specific. The site then returns some potential matches and asks you, the potential customer, to look over the choices and narrow down your selection.  

Expedia.com lists its search results in price order, from lowest to highest. Customers can change the sort order to fit their desire (for example, flights can be sorted by arrival time, departure time, or duration), but the default sort is by price. This is a nice change from other web sites, which often sort the results in a way that is most beneficial to the business. Expedia.com lets you, the customer, see the lowest priced option first in order to save you the most money.

I like the search function at Expedia.com  and I notice that it has been improved over the past several years. With flights, for example, Expedia.com provides the ability to select a different, nearby airport directly from the search results page, for price comparison purposes. There is no need to click "back", on your browser, to start over. You can make these changes quickly and painlessly, right there on the search results page. They could improve the search function more by adding a feature that would allow customers to look at flights one day (or two) before or after the selected dates, for quick comparisons. But the search function is still good and it returns flight results in good time.

After making your selection for your vacation plan, Expedia.com will display a full summary of your desired purchase, along with options to add more services if you like. These other services can be hotels, car rentals, activities, and more. I used to be annoyed by this when I first started to use Expedia, but I have grown to appreciate these offers. Often, these extras are offered at a discount rate and they can save travelers a good amount of money on their vacation costs.

Does Expedia.com offer competitive prices? The answer is yes, for the most part. Expedia.com offers good prices on flights that are usually just as inexpensive as any other travel site. However, lodging and cruises are a mixed bag. What you find in Expedia.com may or may not be the best deal available and it is important that you continue to search and make price comparisons before you accept.  

Bottom- Line Viewpoint:

Expedia.com is a very good travel web service, for flights and other travel- related items. It's easy to use, and the prices are competitive. It doesn't always have the lowest price available, but it has become my travel website resource of choice and I will usually check Expedia.com before I check any other internet travel site. Good search options and good information keep me coming back to Expedia.com to fulfill my travel needs.