Just a friendly WARNING!

1. Watch out for the service fees these online booking sites may charge you. They will NOT be on the first price you see when asking for a quote for your particular travel dates. They only show up AFTER you've gone through the process of booking your reservation. Toward the end of the process, the REAL price will pop up, which includes their fee (also room tax). Not all sites charge a service fee, but many do.

2. Cancellation. You may find yourself paying another fee if you cancel or try to change, even though the hotel itself may not have such a policy. The online booking site might charge you this extra fee. Or if they charged you a fee to make the reservation, you may not get that back if you cancel.

The fee, as I recall, or has that change, is in the neighborhood of $5 per ticket, which really is a steal, provided details are handled properly. The service, of course, may feel they are entitled to an additional fee, a la the airlines themselve, for any subsequent changes. Sadly, a fact of life that one must pay for making a change, but that is one of the facts of travelling as well, which most of us who travel frequently learn to live with. It's not fair or unfair, it just is.

I've never gotten any unusual additional fees tacked on to my tickets when booking through Orbitz. I think they are pretty straight forward in how much the ticket will be and what is included, which is the basic service charge...

I don't really use expedia that much. Sometimes I'll search it if i dont' find what i want on Orbitz or any of the other sites..

I have used Orbitz for a number of trips (hotel and rental cars usually), but always double check the competitors and double check the brand website, 800 line or local office to compare. (This fits into that post about spending a lot of time to plan travel ;) What I'll do is check Orbitz for the rates and then, say, if I'm looking for a rental car, I will use the lowest car rate and then check that company's website and call them. Many times it is even lower when you double check. We got a rate of $99/night at the Hyatt Goat Island (Newport, RI) as an Orbitsaver rate when every where else, even the 800 line was asking for almost triple. Lastly, our on trip to Freeport in June we booked a trip on Yahoo (which is actually travelocity.com) and got the lowest rate there....I am so glad I got to enjoy the beauty Our Lucaya in June b/c now with the hurricanes, they have been hit hard twice and have property damage :(

Must put in my two cents because we had a horrible experience with Expedia. We booked 4 tix to Las Vegas for a company trip and the flight time changed and they never notified us. So we showed up at the airport at 9:00 am to find out our flight left three hours previous and all our connections and return tix were automatically cancelled when we didn't show. USAir was wonderful and worked with us to get us out there, albeit 20 hours later than we would have been. They said that they have problems with Expedia similar to ours at least once a week. What I did learn from the ordeal is to ALWAYS call 24 hours ahead and verify your flight times, no matter who you book with.

I have since used Travelocity many times and have been pleased with them. In my experience they always seem to have the lowest rates on flights as well, other than Priceline, which I'm not willing to use because I like to control my flight times and minimize layovers between flights. Hotwire is good for hotel rooms/rental cars, just be sure of your dates because you can't change it once you've made the reservation.

I have used Expedia many times, but I've also shopped around each time on Orbitz, Travelocity and individual hotel, car and air sites. (For some reason, the Orbitz web site doesn't like my Mac computer and freezes a lot.)
Be aware that by shopping around, sometimes you lose out, because the special deal is gone the next time you look for it.
To me, the only downside to Expedia is that you pay up-front in full for your hotel reservation. Once, though, I wasn't happy with my hotel and called Expedia. They immediately went to bat for me, called the hotel and negotiated a free upgrade for me. They also gave me a $50 coupon for my next Expedia hotel purchase. It was a nice hotel, but my original room was much smaller than it had been described. But I was a happy camper after Expedia stepped in.
In general, I've found their hotel rates to be the best. And I like being able to call the 800 number in a pinch.

Keep in mind the Internet is full of hackers. Most of the travel sites have experienced hackers getting into travel sites scraping credit card information. It is true that this type of identity theft can happen anywhere but you are really subjecting yourself to fraud and identity theft at it's best. You won't even see it coming.

3 to 5 minutes on the phone with a travel agent and your done, secure and have all the neccessary pricing including internet costs to make the best decision.

BK

BK, are you saying the travel agencies don't have computers and don't put your CC information and address in their less secure websites? Don't think you're talking to children here.

BK, you're either fearmongering, or are laboring under a misapprehension. Our credit card number was fraudulently used by a clerk in a department store to buy himself some lovely electronics; he didn't even steal the card, just noted the number after our transaction was complete. This could happen anywhere, including a travel agent's; furthermore, cordless phones can be "hacked", meaning theives can steal your info as you give it to your agent. reputable, secure websites are no more dangerous than your corner store, and should not be avoided out of superstition.

I've used Orbitz to book r/t tickets to Italy last year. Overall, the experience was good, but they did issue me paper tickets, which were a pain in the butt.

I think someone else said this, but watch out for flight numbers and times changing, especially if you plan way in advance. We had 6 months between buying the tickets and our trip and the flights changed 3 or 4 times. Orbitz does not always get these changes, especially with the code sharing. (Our tickets were through Alitalia, but we were flying on Delta planes - Delta changed the flights, Alitalia never heard, so neither did Orbitz.)

The good news is that you should be given a confirmation code for the airline as well as an Orbitz confirmation code. I ended up just calling Delta if I had any questions.

I use orbitz, travelocity, and expedia as a beginning point when making decisions on vacations. I find good airfares then go directly to the airline website that has the most attractive fares and times. There are frequently even more flights listed on the airlines own website and the price is usually $5 cheaper than the travel websites.

Expedia's best fares for hotels require full payment at the time of booking which I am not comfortable with so I usually use orbitz for that. I find that the major three all usually have better fares even than the hotels own prices.

For example, I booked a room at the Sunburst Resort in Scottsdale, AZ for $79/nt on Orbitz. Expedia's best price was $99/nt and required immediate payment, the hotel's own website was $129/nt. Another example, one site lists Sanctuary on Camelback for $225/nt while another lists it for over $400/nt and the hotel's website lists it for the same dates for over $600 last time I checked.

If I don't have a specific hotel in mind I find good rates on hotwire.com by just selecting an area and a specific hotel rating. I've had good luck with them as well (affiliated with orbitz). I've never used priceline as I keep hearing stories about people getting put in the worst possible rooms in the hotel when booking through priceline. I'm sure that isn't always the case but don't want to risk it.

I fell at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, NM, in July. Hotel staff was cleaning the entry way with a greasy substance and did not put up a caution sign or rope off the entry. The hotel staff was not responsive when I told them I was hurt. After many attempts I finally reached the general manager. He seemed very unconcerned that I had fallen and could have broken my kneecaps. He said he would look into the matter and call me back. He never did.

I eventually contacted Expedia, with whom I made the reservation. Expedia sent several form letter replies that did not address the complaint. Eventually they did respond and directed me to call the hotel manager, even though I explained he did not answer my calls.

Expedia did try to call him but would not credit my account or offer anything other than a $50 gift certificate that would require me to spend more money. You will have no recourse if you have a problem with a hotel and you have booked it through Expedia.

I have noted that the hotel rooms were not up to par when we booked through Expedia. Some were disgusting, even though the resorts had 4 or 5 stars. I also did not get my Hilton HHonors points when I used Expedia. It is not worth the small savings you get.