What $currency for this fare, please?

SW17

photome wrote: »

What is a white label

Apologies for the use of jargon. It is a website operated by company A on behalf of company B, under the branding of company B. This is usually when company B has traffic but does not have the technology and/or product to do this successfully themselves, or it is not their core competency (e.g. Expedia, Booking.com or others often provide the hotel and/or packaging engines for airline websites). Basically the online equivalent of companies who manufacture own-brand products for supermarkets instead of, or in addition to, selling under their own brand.

Travelocity is a slightly unusual one, it came about through being beaten into submission in the US market by their larger and more effective competitors. Instead of buying them, Expedia operates the website and Travelocity is now no more than a brand that generates traffic with presumably some sort of commission or revenue sharing agreement. All the non-US bits of Travelocity (mostly under different brands with the exception of the UK) were either sold off or shut down.

Expedia has a very large business doing this. If you are accustomed to looking for the website characteristics, you can spot them fairly easily. Sometimes they have both brands, this is known as a co-branded site rather than a complete "white label". If you look at the bottom of Travelocity, you will see mention of Travelscape LLC. That is one of Expedia's white label vehicles, less known by the public to help preserve the illusion that it is a different operation.