OTA stands for Online Travel Agency.

These are some of the more popular ones that allow you to research, compare, and book travel products—like flights, hotels, car rentals, trains and tours—all in one place. Instead of visiting ten different airline websites, you go to one OTA to see all your options side-by-side.

In the ideal world, you also go to an OTA instead of switching between the OTA site, TripAdvisor, Google Maps or other tools. I think Trip.com is the one that comes closest. The only tool it hasn't replaced yet for me is Google Flights because the Trip.com flight search tool doesn't have the Date Grid view (screenshot below) which I find to sometimes be the biggest travel cost saver for me.

Generally speaking, long distance flights (6+ hours) for my family easily exceeds the hotel costs. This makes Date Grid view the #1 reason to keep using Google Flights. Of course, related to that is the ability to potentially find lower prices on sites other than Trip.com

In terms of usability and time savings, Trip.com is far less frustrating than other sites. While Trip.com may not always offer the lowest flight-only price, the ability to add travel insurance, trip (delay) insurance, lounge access and other add-ons can be done in the same flight ticket checkout flow. Other sites require a lot more work or visits to additional sites. Trip.com is consistently faster and more reliable than competitors whether on desktop or mobile app, and customer service is also better.

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