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Expedia is buying rival online travel site Orbitz for approximately $1.33 billion, adding to the stable of brands it has snapped up recently in order to extend its reach and keep pace in the fiercely competitive travel-booking industry. Expedia’s acquisition of Orbitz is its second major deal in the past month as the industry continues to consolidate. Expedia announced the $280 million acquisition of another rival, Travelocity, in late January. It also follows the company’s July announcement that it was buying Wotif.com for $658 million. By bringing Orbitz into the fold, Expedia gains access to the Orbitz namesake brand, as...

Just wanted to alert the community that there is a company opertaing as passport 2 fun and/or savings ace. I know they had a banner on travelocity, and its reported that they were on hotwire as well. IF you inadvertently clicked it you will get charged $19.95 per month until you raise holy hell.(we were being charger under both) You get no other communications from the company other then the banner, and it will take 1-2 hours on the phone demanding to speak with a supervisor and threats of small claims court before you will get anywhere. They finally promised...

(CBS) DALLAS Several cities around the country have sued Web-based travel clearinghouses such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, claiming they have failed to pay millions of dollars in hotel taxes. San Antonio filed a class-action lawsuit this week seeking to recover lost taxes, and Los Angeles, San Diego, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago have filed similar suits. The state of Texas and two of its biggest cities, Dallas and Houston, are considering their own actions. San Antonio believes online travel agencies negotiate room discounts from hotels, and sell the rooms at a markup to consumers. The agencies, though, only pay hotel...

INVESTORS HAVE BEEN FIXATED on Google the past few weeks, as its shares have tumbled nearly 25% from a peak of $475 -- and the fact is, there could be a lot more tumbling ahead. The share price could well be cut in half over the next year as the Internet giant grapples with growing competition from Microsoft and Yahoo!, increased pricing pressures in its online ad sales and mounting concern about what's known as click fraud. Suffice it to say, there are those who disagree... But the list of challenges the company faces is nothing short of mind-googling. As...

Travelocity.com, the online travel service, said Wednesday it expects to save $10 million a year by moving about 300 U.S. call-center jobs to India. The company said it intends to close its 250-employee Clintwood, Va., call center by year's end. An additional 50 job cuts are expected at its call center in San Antonio, where more than 750 people work, said spokesman Joel Frey.An Indian company, WNS North America, is expected to start taking some of the calls at its facilities in India by April or May, and the transition to WNS is expected to be complete by year's end,...

Rivals of the airline-owned ticket distributor Orbitz head to the White House on Tuesday to try to convince the Bush administration to curb the venture. Executives from Orbitz competitors such as Travelocity.com and Expedia Inc. said they will take their competition concerns about the airline joint venture into a series of meetings with high-level officials in the White House, the U.S. Transportation Department, and members of Congress. "We appeal to the Administration to intervene immediately and decisively -- before irreparable harm to consumers and competition occurs," five industry executives wrote in a letter to President Bush. The letter also was...