Travelers' Aid: Trusting Your Travel Agent (6/8/2001)

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There's a big new travel website debuting this week. It's called "Orbitz" and its backers say it's going to leave Expedia and Travelocity in the dust. But here's the thing: its backers are the airlines. Five airlines own stakes in Orbitz - which, as you can imagine, brings up a host of consumer concerns. The folks at Consumer Reports are keeping their eyes on Orbitz, but so far they're tight-lipped: their policy is not to comment on something they haven't tested. However, maybe you remember a few months ago, we talked about an article from the Consumer Reports Travel Letter - it found "disturbing evidence" that online travel consumers were not getting the best fares available. Bill McGee, the editor of the Travel Letter, wrote that article and he's back this week to do some explaining. Because in a new survey of 840 travel agents - this is the old brick and mortar model - the Travel Letter found that they often do not give you the best fare available either...that they lie. So you can't trust the online options...you can't trust the travel agents, what can you do?