Want to save money on a trip around the world?
Want to save the world?
With Earthtrip.com, you can do both.
Earthtrip.com is an online travel agency where users can find the cheapest rates on flights, hotel accommodations, car rentals and tours to anywhere in the world.
“Earthtrip is designed to be easy to use — not easier than other sites — but easy,” said Brian Fahey, president of Earthtrip.com. “We conducted studies and discovered the shortcomings of similar sites. They were confusing, hard to use, with advertisements everywhere. So we built our site to be user-friendly.”
Earthtrip.com provides travelers with unbiased access to 455 airlines, 39,000 hotels, 50 rental car companies, 27 tour operators and 49 special travel service suppliers around the world.
“You’ll never see ads for Delta or other airlines, or car rental places,” Fahey said. “We don’t want to create bias. We provide the cheapest public fares you can get from an ad agency.”
Unlike other online sites that provide similar services, Earthtrip is committed to helping the environment. To that end, the dot-com donates 5 percent of revenues each time a flight, hotel room or rental car is booked, to the Earthtrip Foundation without charging the traveler more money. The foundation then donates 100 percent of the money to a charity of the travelers’ choice.
According to Fahey, there are a few airlines that Earthtrip does not usually work with because those airlines do not pay commission, including Northwest Airlines.
“We can’t work for free. So if we do sell Northwest Airlines tickets we charge the traveler an extra fee, which is not fair, but there is nothing we can do,” Fahey said. “We are less expensive than the ‘brick and mortar’ travel agencies.”
Travelers are sent a confirmation number they can use to check their itinerary on the site 24-hours-a-day. Itineraries can also be printed and the dot-com will send users three e-mails that confirm their cost, flights, reservations and other pertinent information. Users can also receive their information in the mail.
According to Fahey, Earthtrip is not a traditional dot-com.
“We operate as a real business that provides a cheaper deal than any agency,” he said. “You may find a cheaper deal through Priceline.com or Hotwire.com, but those sites are not agencies, they’re consolidators. They may get you a cheaper deal but won’t be able to refund your money or change your flight, or other services provided by agencies. We will give you the cheapest flight, or the best flight, or a first class seat on the Concord if you want.”
According to Fahey, the marketplace for online ticket purchasing in 1996 was only $280 million. Three years later that number jumped to $7.1 billion, and it is projected online ticket sales will generate $320 billion by 2003.
“The Internet is the way to do it. Many brick and mortar travel agencies are probably going to go out of business,” Fahey said. “People used to be scared and skeptical about e-commerce and giving out credit card numbers. But this is not a problem anymore. We don’t store card numbers and our site is reliable and secure.”
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Earthtrip has been offering flights, hotel and car reservations since August 2000.
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