Booking travel on Expedia

finally getting around to booking the long-awaited trip to California (yipee!). I've found some really good deals on expedia.com - as it'll be a multi-stop trip, prices are much more competitive than any of the quotes I got from travel agents.
It all looks great, and I can even add a hotel and car rental to the overall itinerary.
I'm just wondering if anyone has booked a trip on expedia before? Any potential pitfalls or specific things to be aware of before I part with my cash???

Thanks!

Last time I tried (about 12 months ago) you had to be either UK or US resident to proceed with a booking, so check that out first before you go too far.

z

Yes .. Expedia.co.uk basically only will allow you to buy tickets if you are a UK resident (e-tickets will only be issued against UK credit cards .. paper tickets can be bought with non UK cards but only can be delivered to UK Addresses) .. I assume it is similar for Expedia.com

However Expedia fares generally *should* be available from other sources too .. unless they are marked "expedia special fares" you should be able to buy them from any airline / travel agent. However many airfares do have purchase restrictions .. some cheap fares may only be available for purchase in the USA.

Yeah I think this could be true. You need an American of British visa card.

You can book with travelocity and s ome company in town issue the tickets for you but charge you ridiculous about like 50 or 60 euro for the pleasure.

Best thing I would advise is to go to the compannies direct website and you will more than likely get the same filght prices if not better.

What flight are you looking at? Dublin to LA?

Expedia booking

I'm looking at Dublin - San Fran, then internal flight from LA - Vegas, then Vegas - Dublin.
I called another travel agent today and they quoted me €1100 inc tax with Continental (on Expedia same flight was €950 inc tax...!)

Added convenience with Expedia of being able to book hotels + car hire all at once...
Thanks for the advice - I'll try calling the airlines directly.

Club Travel will issue Travelocity Tickets for €30 ... fully agree this is a bit of a rip off ... it's not as if they have to do very much and they are charging the same service fee as if you walked in off the street to book the ticket and made them do all the work.

whats dates are you travelling from each place to each place?

I kind of did the same holiday last year and organised it myself. I flew cheap flights to LA with aerlingus and then I used southwest airlines to fly from LA to Vegas return (about $60) and then san fran return ($50). They have a good website. www.southwest.com and you can even fly to multiple destinations.

If you post your rough dates I can have a look.

Expedia booking

Thanks decbuck
We're actually travelling on Sat week!
trip was cancelled and rebooked so many times, we're just going to go for it!
Rough agenda is as follows:

Sat 21/08 Dub -> SFO
21/08 - 31/08 travel from SFO to LA via Monterey, Santa Barbara etc
01/09 LA -> Vegas
04/09 Vegas - Dublin

Re: Expedia booking

Cool. Sounds like a brilliant trip. Are you getting car from san fran to la?

Where are you going to stay in Vegas?

Expedia booking

yeah, we're planning to drive from San Fran - LA, taking a week or so to do it.
A friend recommended the Excalibur hotel in Vegas - apparently pretty decent price with good amenities and it's right on the Strip.... what more can we gals want??!

Re: Expedia booking

I don't think you are going to be able to fly back direct from Las Vegas anyway, so you will probably end up having to change flights along the way somewhere.

I had a quick look at the Southwest website and for the dates in question you can fly return between LAX and Las Vegas for $29 each way with plenty of flights and seats. They don't fly to SFO unfortunately, but I'm sure someone does and probably at the same type of price.

It might be worth booking your return to SFO through EI and just booking the internal flights separately as suggested above, or out to SFO and back through LAX.

z

Expedia booking

Just fyi - I rang the UK Expedia helpline and it is possible for non UK/US customers to book flights, as long as it's a ticketless flight.
If tickets are to be issued, then they can only be sent to a UK/US address (or any of the other international Expedia sites).

Irish customers can book car hire or hotel rooms on expedia without any problem.

In any case, looks like my problem is solved - Sayit just found me a very decent price of EUR 957 for Dub -> San Fran and Vegas -> Dublin. I'm definitely going to book the internal flight from LA - Vegas on Southwest, as it looks really good.
Thanks to all for the advice!
Yee-haw!!!!

Re: Expedia booking

did you ring us airways and see what they could quote you.

www.usairways.ie

they only have telephone number. I have a feeling you will get what you want including the la - vega flight for about 700.

I'd ring them

Also someone said in previous post that southwest don't fly to sfo, well they fly to the other airport in sf called oakland. Only 25 mins train from city centre.

Expedia booking

fantastic decbuck! Just called US Airways and I got an even better price of EUR 766 (inc taxes) for Dub - SFO and Vegas -Dublin. Superb!
will use the southwest airlines site for the LA - Vegas piece.

thanks again all...

Re: Expedia booking

You could probably do better than 957 ... as Dec says I'd try Usairways or www.continental.com ... worth a try at least... €957 isn't too bad for 10 days notice in high season.. but you might still be able to beat it.

As regards the Expedia thing .. I still think you can't buy e-tix on Expedia.co.uk .. since they demand a UK credit card when you buy the ticket... however might be worth a try I suppose.

Re: Expedia booking

sounds good dunners. did you get your vegas hotel sorted.

another handy hint might be to sign up to the excailber's mailing list. Best way of getting cheap deals in all the hotels. You should be able to get a really good hotel for no more than 79-99 dollars. We stayed at MGM Grand last year, for only 89 a night.

Did you book your car. Cars can get expensive in America. Are you over 25?. If not you pay an extra 20 dollars a day in the rate!!!

Expedia booking

Hotel - will add myself to their mailing list - good idea.

Car - yes, it's the one time I've actually been pleased to admit to being over 25...! Think might be able to get an ok rate through work (ie their corporate rate)

Ballys Hotel

If you haven't booked a hotel room yet I can highly recommend Ballys Hotel which is right opposite the Bellagio and right in the centre of the strip.Hubby and I stayed there for our honeymoon and it was gorgeous. You can get really good deals if you shop around..We booked the room through Expedia and it was fab. Their sister hotel "Paris " is fab as well.They have a great spa and everything is on your doorstep...I'm so jealous,I love Vegas......