SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 20, 2004–Travelers looking to save time and money do not need to comparison shop for the best airfare deals. According to a five-month airfare study comparing nearly 140,000 airfares, Travelocity(R) beat or matched Expedia pricing 89 percent of the time and Orbitz 87 percent of the time. In addition, the study found that when Travelocity had the lowest fare, it saved its customers an average of more than $30.
The study was conducted using FareChase’s MarketView software, which offers the first real-time non-GDS pricing analysis for assessing yield management and acquiring a snapshot of airfare inventory. The study, which was originally devised as an internal benchmarking exercise, analyzed 171 of the top 250 domestic travel routes and compared Travelocity’s pricing with two major online travel competitors, Expedia and Orbitz.
“We’ve always believed in offering the best deals available to our customers,” said Tracey Weber, vice president, air and car for Travelocity. “This study confirms our beliefs that Travelocity is the only place travelers need to visit to purchase travel. These significant savings allow travelers to more affordably enhance their trip through the purchase of “travel extras” like ski lift tickets, tickets to shows, tours and attractions, and ground transportation. Or they can simply enjoy the savings, and the satisfaction of getting a great deal.”
With Travelocity’s one-stop shop for airline tickets, consumers have access to hundreds of airlines, thousands of fares, and convenient products that make their travel shopping experience fast and easy. Tools and features available to assist travelers when searching for the best deals include:
-- FareWatcher(SM): This free, personalized subscription service
tracks the best round-trip airfares available on Travelocity
for up to five city pairs by cost increment, or specified cost
settings, and send consumers notification of airfare changes
via e-mail.
-- Dream Maps(R): This Travelocity tool finds the best places to
travel based on a specific dollar amount and displays, via an
interactive map, the airfares to cities or national parks
across the United States.
-- Alternate Airports: Travelocity automatically searches nearby
airports within arrival or departure cities for lower airfares
and displays options via an interactive window. Airfare
savings and driving distance between the original and
alternate airports also are included.
-- Web Fares: Travelocity offers deeply discounted Web fares on
more than ten carriers to destinations across the country and
around the world.
For more information about the Travelocity study, the methodology and the results, visit www.travelocity.com/airfarestudy.
About Travelocity
Travelocity’s industry-leading technology and straight-talking, honest information help travelers take more rewarding and affordable trips. With 44 million registered users and booking nearly $4 billion of travel in 2003, Travelocity negotiates thousands of low-priced deals with the world’s most reputable travel providers – top airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, and other destination attractions and services. Additionally, Travelocity offers deeply-discounted rates for weekend getaways and dynamic packages through its Last Minute Deals and TotalTrip(SM) shopping engines, and provides customer service support over the phone 24 hours a day. Based in Southlake, Texas, Travelocity also operates Travelocity Business(SM) for corporate customers, powers international travel Web sites in eight languages, and has been recognized for its consumer advocacy and global leadership in online travel. More information about Travelocity is available at www.travelocity.com. Travelocity is owned by Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE:TSG), a world leader in travel commerce. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at www.sabre-holdings.com.
CONTACT: Vollmer Public Relations
Judy Haveson, 212-808-6541
judy@vollmerpr.com
or
Chintan Talati, 972-488-4790
chintan@vollmerpr.com
SOURCE: Travelocity
