Contrary to Hype, Best Online Air Deals For Americans Found on European Sites

Groundbreaking Investigation of 20 Travel Sites In Seven Countries Finds "Fare-Jumping" Still a Credibility Problem

YONKERS, N.Y., November 12, 2004–A first-of-its-kind international investigation of cross-border shopping for online airfares led by Consumer Reports WebWatch reveals that European travel sites are much more adept at providing lower fares than U.S.-based sites. Complete findings can be found at
http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/
travel-report-cross-border-abstract.cfm

A little-known Belgian site, TravelPrice, dramatically outperformed U.S.-based sites Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. An English-language site in the United Kingdom, Opodo, also offered better deals than its American rivals, which spend millions of dollars on marketing and advertising. Further, testers of all three U.S. sites found continuing problems with “fare-jumping,” when sites display flights with prices that suddenly change mid-transaction.

The results were revealed in WebWatch’s latest investigation, “A Cross-Border Examination of 20 Travel Web Sites Selling International Airline Tickets in the United States and Six Western European Countries,” released today. The study was performed in conjunction with consumer groups in the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Denmark and is the largest, most complex study WebWatch has performed to date of the online travel market.

“Unfortunately, we continue to find that some of the best travel deals online are, in fact, not always available,” said William J. McGee, a leading travel journalist and consultant who oversaw the project for Consumer Reports WebWatch and authored the report.

Key Findings:

• Despite language and currency issues, several European travel sites could be viable alternatives for American consumers.
• Flight and fare data provided by “sister” travel sites—those that have U.S. and/or European counterparts, such as Expedia, Opodo and Travelocity—varied widely from country to country, dispelling notions that these sites are identical except for home pages and translations. In fact, each sister site clearly obtained its own inventory of airfares.
• Many of the most viable low-fare airline choices are not always available on leading third-party travel sites. This is as true in Europe as it is in the United States (as exemplified by Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways).
• Nearly all the travel sites were twice as likely to provide a lowest fare on a route that originated in the site’s home country, as they were for all routes from all countries. Therefore, Americans traveling from the U.K. to another Western European destination, for example, may consider using a British site to book a ticket.
• On the whole, English-language American and British sites did not perform as well as sites based in Belgium and Germany. When the sites were ranked by country, the United States trailed those two countries.

Methodology:

In collaboration with Consumers International of London, U.K, Consumer Reports WebWatch employed the proven methodologies it used in six previous tests of travel sites. WebWatch staff trained and oversaw participants from five European consumer organizations, conducting 144 tests on 20 individual travel sites in the United States and Europe. The European organizations were: Test-Achats/Test-Aankoop, Belgium; The Danish Consumer Council, Denmark; UFC-Que Choisir?, France; Stiftung-Warentest, Germany; and Consumentenbond, The Netherlands.

"In general, U.S. sites have made substantial improvements in addressing credibility, transparency, and claims of service," said Beau Brendler, WebWatch’s director. "We hope the European organizations will continue to monitor sites in their home countries for these qualities."

WebWatch is sponsoring a conference on the online travel market March 1 in Dallas, Texas. More information is available here: http://www.ersvp.com/reply/webwatch.

About Consumer Reports WebWatch

Consumer Reports WebWatch is the leader in investigative reporting on trust and credibility in the online marketplace. WebWatch uses the proven methods of Consumer Reports to produce comprehensive research, breakthrough conferences and serves as a daily resource of unbiased and trustworthy information. Its research agenda includes entire online marketplaces, such as travel, search, health, financial services and more. WebWatch is a project of Consumers Union and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Institute. WebWatch's investigative reports, articles and news are available to the general public at http://www.consumerwebwatch.org

About Consumers International

Consumers International supports, links and represents consumer groups and agencies all over the world. It has a membership of over 250 organizations in 115 countries. It strives to promote a fairer society through defending the rights of all consumers, especially the poor, marginalised and disadvantaged, by: supporting and strengthening member organizations and the consumer movement in general, and campaigning at the international level for policies which respect consumer concerns.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports , is an expert, independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. To achieve this mission, we test, inform, and protect. To maintain our independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU supports itself through the sale of its information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants. Consumer Reports content can be found online at ConsumerReports.org. Consumers Union's public policy work can be found online at ConsumersUnion.org.