Travelocity Copies Expedia and Orbitz . . . Better

(MoneyWatch)  Travelocity is competing for online travel dollars by matching its rivals' deals, so why is it doing it better?

The online company recently copied an Expedia Inc. promotion that drops booking fees on all flights until the end of May. Great for the consumer, not so great for Orbitz Worldwide and Priceline.com, who haven't jumped on the bandwagon, and are facing steep competition.

However, Orbitz has a promotion called "Price Assurance," which reports that if a customer buys a plane ticket and another buys the same ticket for less money, Orbitz will refund the difference between $5 to $250. So Travelocity decides to create PriceGuardian, which promises a similar refund for hotel and flight vacation packages from $10 to $500.

(Travelocity's press release says, "It is the first time this kind of service has been available from an online travel company on vacation packages." OK, since previously it was just used on flights at Orbitz, it's technically the first of its kind -- but I think you can catch my drift.)

So, Travelocity, armed with two of the better online travel promotions that it simply copied -- and strangely, no other company has thought to do it -- is now placing itself as the consumer answer to travel. I think this is what we call being responsive to the market.