Travelocity Review

A note of recognition: I was inspired to write this review from a recent one posted by AprileFisher re: Orbitz Travel entitled "A Necessary Evil". Please refer to her review as well for more details.

As a frequent traveler, I am always on the prowl for great deals on flights and hotels. My personal favorite website for travel deals is Travelocity (the gnome does it for me on commercials). The ease of typing in my fantasy destination and waiting to see what the magical gnome will yield often puts a grin on my face; a somewhat pathetic, guilty pleasure of mine.

I have been very fortunate as I never had any problems with my flight or hotel itineraries with these tertiary companies. I have booked flights to California, Spokane, and New York with zero errors. In addition, I frequently book hotel accomodations and are pleased with the results-- hotel descriptions were accurate, and rooms passed with my standards of cleanliness and basic amenities. Tertiary travel sites such as Travelocity, Expedia, and Orbitz are probably the most well known, but be forewarned-- the amateur traveler may be conned into more than what he or she bargained for.

My first rule of thumb is to always check their cancellation policy before confirming anything. Majority of the time, these tertiary sites have cancellation policies that are 100% NON-refundable. Even if they claim to have a cancellation policy, I always tell people to not even consider it. The hassle of trying to reason with a Customer Service agent and being transferred to 763,549,208 other CS agents is enough to give anyone a sprout of premature graying. If an individual is unsure of their exact dates of travel, I say hands-down, don't even bother with Travelocity (or any travel site for that matter) until you know for sure.

Second rule: Double check your flight itinerary and be aware that the cheapest fare is usually NOT the most direct path. I have no problems with motion sickness, tight quarters, or sitting still. But I believe that travelers should prevent health problems due to ischemia (lack of circulation causing pain/discomfort/numbness in limbs) by knowing how long they are in the air and how frequently they should be moving around. I have seen many flight itineraries from tertiary sites offering staggering cheap fares, but it takes 15 hours to get from LA to Chicago. Not good. Know the balance between bargain and practicality and you're set to fly.