Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For the websites of airlines that fly to
and from Chicago, go to “Getting
There,” p. 43.
Great
last-minute deals
are avail-
able through free weekly e-mail services
provided directly by the airlines. Most
of these are announced on Tuesday or
Wednesday and must be purchased
online. Most are only valid for travel
that weekend, but some (such as
Southwest's) can be booked weeks or
months in advance. Sign up for weekly
e-mail alerts at airline websites or check
megasites that compile comprehensive
lists of last-minute specials, such as
Smarter Living
(smarterliving.com).
For last-minute trips,
site59.com
and
lastminutetravel.com
in the U.S. and
lastminute.com
in Europe often have
better air-and-hotel package deals than
the major-label sites.
If you're willing to give up some
control over your flight details, use
what is called an
“opaque” fare serv-
ice
like
Priceline
(www.priceline.com;
www.priceline.co.uk for Europeans)
or its smaller competitor
Hotwire
(www.hotwire.com). Both offer rock-
bottom prices in exchange for travel
on a “mystery airline” at a mysterious
time of day, often with a mysterious
change of planes en route. The mys-
tery airlines are all major, well-known
carriers—and the possibility of being
sent from Philadelphia to Chicago via
Tampa is remote; the airlines' routing
computers have gotten a lot better
than they used to be. But your chances
of getting a 6am or 11pm flight are
pretty high. Hotwire tells you flight
prices before you buy; Priceline usu-
ally has better deals than Hotwire, but
you have to play their “name our
price” game. If you're new at this, the
helpful folks at
BiddingForTravel
(www.biddingfortravel.com) do a
good job of demystifying Priceline's
prices and strategies. Priceline and
Hotwire are great for flights within
North America and between the U.S.
and Europe. But for flights to other
parts of the world, consolidators will
almost always beat their fares.
Note:
In 2004 Priceline added non-opaque
service to its roster. You now have the
option to pick exact flights, times, and
airlines from a list of offers—or opt to
bid on opaque fares as before.
For much more about airfares and
savvy air-travel tips and advice, pick
up a copy of
Frommer's Fly Safe, Fly
Smart
(Wiley Publishing, Inc.).
SURFING FOR HOTELS
Shopping online for hotels is generally
done one of two ways: by booking
through the hotel's own website or
through an independent booking
agency (or a fare-service agency like
Priceline; see below). Prices can vary
considerably from site to site—and
keep in mind that hotels at the top of
a site's listing may be there for no
other reason than that they paid
money to get the placement.
Of the “big three” sites,
Expedia
offers a long list of special deals and
“virtual tours” or photos of available
rooms so you can see what you're pay-
ing for.
Travelocity
posts unvarnished
customer reviews and ranks its proper-
ties according to the AAA rating sys-
tem. Also reliable are
Hotels.com
and
Quikbook.com.
An excellent free pro-
gram,
TravelAxe
(www.travelaxe.net),
can help you search multiple hotel sites
at once, even ones you may never have
heard of—and conveniently lists the
total price of the room, including the
taxes and service charges.
Another booking site,
Travelweb
(www.travelweb.com), is partly owned
by the hotels it represents (including
the Hilton, Hyatt, and Starwood
chains) and is therefore plugged
directly into the hotels' reservations
systems—unlike independent online
agencies, which have to fax or e-mail
reservation requests to the hotel, a
portion of which get misplaced in the
shuffle. It's a good idea to get a
con-
firmation number
and
make a print-
out
of any online booking transaction.
