Be Your Own Travel Agent!

by Doug Smith

 http://web.archive.org/web/20000409124934/www.ed2go.com/news/airtix.html

I work for a company whose business is entirely online, and the Internet basically provides me with my means of income. Despite the fact that I work on the Web all the time, I sometimes need help too. When I need Web help, I go to the expert. My girlfriend is my personal web expert, especially when it comes to buying things on the web.

Well, we both are going home for the holidays to visit our parents and family. Her family is in Chicago and my family is in Alabama. Like many others at this time of the year, we needed to make airline reservations.

Last year, I let my Mom make my reservations. She picked up the phone, called the local travel agency and took whatever she could get. I wound up paying over $600. I had to change flights two or three times on the way there. I had to run through the airport like O.J. in those old Hertz commercials. I won't even mention my additional jaunt up to Chicago to see my girlfriend, the worst blizzard in 20 years, the airport closure and the extra days spent snowed in. In two words: "HI, HASSLE!"

Now my girlfriend makes my travel arrangements for me. It's quicker, cheaper, and much more convenient.

I remember in the old days (last year) of purchasing tickets online when you would fill out a form and submit it. You would tell them where you wanted to go and when you wanted to travel. Then the site would send you an e-mail with details about the cheapest fair.

Now your airline travel planning is practically instantaneous. You provide the info needed (when and where). In a few seconds you can receive a list of airlines, prices, requirements, and restrictions. Then you choose your airline and price and go from there. Purchasing your ticket with credit card assures your reservation. You can have a paper ticket mailed to you (how old-fashioned), or opt for ticketless travel where you just show up and show your ID at the desk (how convenient). The most fun is when you get to choose your seat and location online!

From what I've dealt with, Expedia is the cream of the crop of buying airline tickets online. Here, you can plan your trips, compare fares, and purchase tickets. The site is well designed and very user-friendly. You indicate dates by clicking on easy-to-read calendars, and can easily pick from multiple airlines, airports, and fares. The site will also store your itinerary for your future reference. Repeat users can create a profile and the site will remember all of your contact and payment information. A very easy-to-use, convenient site.

Priceline.com takes a different approach to purchasing tickets online. Here, they claim you can save up to 40% on your airline tickets. Just tell them where you want to go, when you want to go, and how much you want to pay. If an airline agrees to match your price, Priceline.com will purchase the tickets for you, using the information you provide.

There are other discount ticket sites out there that just don't cut the cake. Airfares-for-less.com offers a poorly designed site, with tabled of fares, cities and prices which you have to cross reference to find a rate. Then you fill out and submit a form. The staff will check availability for you and phone you with reservation information.

There's also discount-air-travel.com, www.airline-fares.com, and www.discount-airfares.com, all of which are pretty much the same site. These sites seem to be collections of links to other discount airline sites (most noticeably Priceline.com).

Most major airlines also offer ticket purchasing online, usually at some discount. It is best to go to a site that searches through many fares and airlines for you and returns a number of special deals and fares. I've had a hard time finding out about highly publicized fare specials from airline sites before. In addition, the TWA website isn't going to compare and detail results of the fare wars from all the other online airline sites.

So, happy traveling! Don't phone the airline or the travel agent. Book the flight yourself from the comfort of your own home. If you're lucky, you'll be like me and get your holiday ticket for $200 less than you did last year, with only one stop over this time. I hope I can avoid the blizzard this year!