Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
47
lastminutetravel.com
in the U.S. and
lastminute.com
in Europe often have bet-
ter air-and-hotel package deals than the
major-label sites. A website listing numer-
ous bargain sites and airlines ar ound the
world is
www.itravelnet.com
.
If you're willing to give up some control
over your flight details, use what is called
an
“opaque” far e ser vice
such as
Price-
line
(www .priceline.com; www .priceline.
co.uk for E uropeans) or its smaller com-
petitor
Hotwire
(www .hotwire.com).
Both offer rock-bottom prices in exchange
for travel on a “ mystery airline” at a mys-
terious time of day , often with a mysteri-
ous change of planes en route. The mystery
airlines are all major, well-known carriers,
and the possibility of being sent fr om
Philadelphia to Chicago via Tampa is
remote; airlines ' r outing computers hav e
gotten a lot better than they used to be.
But y our chances of getting a 6am or
11pm flight are pretty high. Hotwire tells
you flight prices befor e you buy; Priceline
usually has better deals than H otwire, but
you hav e to play their “ name our price ”
game. I f y ou're ne w at this, the helpful
folks at
BiddingForTravel
(www.bidding
fortravel.com) do a good job of demystifying
Priceline's prices and strategies. P riceline
and H otwire ar e gr eat for flights within
North America and between the U.S. and
Europe. B ut for flights to other par ts of
the world, consolidators will almost always
beat their fares.
Note:
Priceline now has a
non-opaque ser vice in addition to their
opaque service. You now have the option
to pick exact flights, times, and airlines
from a list of offers.
For much more about airfares and savvy
air-travel tips and advice, pick up a copy of
Frommer's F ly S afe, F ly S mart
(Wiley
Publishing, Inc.).
SURFING FOR HOTELS
Shopping online for hotels is generally
done one of two ways: b y booking thr ough
the hotel's own w ebsite or thr ough an inde-
pendent booking agency (or a far e-service
agency, such as Priceline; see below). These
Internet hotel agencies hav e multiplied
in mind-boggling numbers of late, com-
peting for the business of millions of
consumers sur fing for accommodations
around the world. This competitiv eness
can be a boon to consumers who hav e the
patience and time to shop and compar
e
the online sites for good deals—but shop
they must, for 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 r eason than that they
paid money to get the placement.
Of the “big thr ee” sites,
Expedia
offers
a long list of special deals and “ virtual
tours” or photos of available rooms so you
can see what y ou're paying for (a featur e
that helps counter the claims that the best
rooms ar e often held back fr om bargain-
booking w ebsites).
Travelocity
posts
unvarnished customer r eviews and ranks
its properties according to the AAA rating
system. Also r eliable is
Hotels.com.
An
excellent fr ee pr ogram,
TravelAxe
(www.
travelaxe.com), can help y ou search mul-
tiple hotel sites at once, even ones you may
never hav e hear d of—and conv eniently
lists the total price of the r oom, including
the tax es and ser vice charges. Another
booking site,
Travelweb
(www.travelweb.
com), is partly owned by the hotels it rep-
resents (including the H ilton, Hyatt, and
Starwood chains) and is therefore plugged
directly into the hotels ' r eservations sys-
tems—unlike independent online agen-
cies, which have to fax or e-mail eservation
requests to the hotel, a good por tion of
which get misplaced in the shuffle. M ore
than once, trav elers hav e arriv ed at the
hotel only to be told that they hav e no
reservation. To be fair, many of the major
sites ar e undergoing impr ovements in
service and ease of use. I n the meantime,
it's a good idea to
get a confir mation
number
and
make a printout
3
of any
online-booking transaction.
