Cheap fare may be a few clicks away

By John Yaukey
Gannett News Service

It's said the roads are full of flat squirrels that couldn't make up their minds on where to go.

With spring break waiting just on the other side of mid-terms, you risk being left for road kill on the boulevard of good times if you haven't made up your mind on where to frolic in the sun or cruise the slopes. Good thing the Web is stacked up with travel bargains, especially for last-minute planners such as college senior Trina Zahran, who make up almost 70 percent of leisure travelers.

"Traveling off the Web certainly isn't brain surgery or anything,'' she said. "Usually if I do a little research I can find something I'm pretty happy with even at the last minute.''

Indeed, booking travel online these days is a no-brainer — certainly much faster than going through a travel agent. And while there are no reliable figures on the potential savings — the airline pricing structure has proven too much of a crapshoot for that kind of analysis — the vast majority of anecdotal evidence and the surging popularity of online travel booking indicate it's worth it. Especially now.

Once plagued by complexity, greasy behind-the-scenes relationships and questionable privacy policies, not to mention the general uncertainty that pervaded most Web enterprises, travel sites have staged a noteworthy comeback from the mass dot-com flameout, analysts say.

If anything, the implosion had a positive effect, purging many of the unsuccessful practices and gimmicks. Over the past year, according to the PhoCusWright Travel Consumer Trends Survey, online bookings have shot up a whopping 75 percent. Some 21 million Americans now regularly book their travel online, and 80 percent of that is airline tickets.

"Online travel is now officially a killer app,'' said PhoCusWright CEO Phil Wolf. "If you're not booking online now, it's for psychological reasons.''

So quit the squirrely act and get your mouse in motion, it's time to travel. But first, a few pointers and explanations.

In addition to travel sites such as Expedia and Orbitz, Web portals, such as Yahoo! or MSN, also offer booking services. But more often than not these sites merely plug into the major travel site search engines. Expedia, for instance, provides the booking engine for the Fodors Web site. It's usually easier to go straight to the source so the list of travel sites that follows excludes portal sites.

Most travel sites require you to join. But fear not, it's painless and free. Typically, you'll be asked for your name, address, phone number and e-mail address, and then instructed to choose a log-on moniker and password. If you're nervous about using your credit card for purchases, you can often call in the card number to a toll-free number.

With most sites, you're encouraged to accept an e-ticket, but you can also ask for a paper one, which must be mailed usually for an additional charge of several dollars.

Before you book, visit at least two travel sites and check your best price against a ticket purchased directly from an airline's Web site. It's not often that you'll find a better deal than at an airline's site, but the system is so fluid that experts say it's almost impossible to predict how it will come out all the time.

"Don't be loyal to any one site,'' said Bill McGee, editor of the Consumer Reports Travel Letter (consumerreports.org). "Just because you hit the jackpot there once or twice doesn't mean it's going to be the consistent winner. Airlines play a lot of distribution channels. They typically put a chip on every square in the game, so check as many squares as you can.''

General travel sites

www.travelocity.com: Travelocity offers some of the clearest, easiest and most comprehensive choices in finding a flight

with its four research options — flexible dates; fixed dates with flexible times; dates that are not flexible, but travel times that are; inflexible dates and times; or bid for a ticket through Priceline.com (see bidding sites below).

Travelocity lets you tailor searches for business or first-class seating, and for restricted and unrestricted tickets in economy class. You also can specify airline and number of connections. But be prepared to pay for those privileges. In a test run, ticket prices went up as much as $220 when these restrictions were applied.

Travelocity is an excellent place to travel-shop if you're looking for bargains to general venues such as beaches, slopes or shopping towns.

Make sure to check the travel air, hotel and rental car packages here as well. Specials vary daily, and savings can really add up if you can fulfill the double-occupancy qualification. A recent five-night air-hotel package to Cancun would have saved the purchaser more than $300 over separately booked items.

Expedia.com: Expedia offers one of the most comprehensive list of air travel search options of any of the major travel sites, but it's not as easy to navigate as Travelocity.

The express search option can be changed to include specific pricing qualifications, such as "no advance-purchase restrictions."

Like most sites, Expedia allows you to book flights for specific departure and arrival times, but you can also request flights for a "general time of day.'' For example, if your itinerary isn't the cheapest one available for the time you choose, you'll be shown some less expensive alternatives within the same general time of day.

Travelers can also bid for flights through Flight Matcher, which works essentially the same way as Priceline.com.

Hotel Wizard lets you check prices on thousands of hotels, hostels and lodgings worldwide and book reservations. You can also book cruises as well as rent cars.

Orbitz.com: Orbitz was founded by five major U.S. airlines — American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United.

It is perhaps the most straightforward of the major sites for booking flights, meaning it limits what can quickly amount to confusing options. For example, in the "flights" category you merely fill in the blanks and you get a grid of several different airlines and the lowest airfare for each. The site's default setting lists all of the options by the lowest price at the top of the screen.

The "nearby cities'' search for those willing to trek out to the cheaper airports in the hinterburbs can mean substantial savings, and it's easier to use than similar features offered by Travelocity and Expedia. For example, booking a recent flight to the Bahamas from Maryland's Baltimore/Washington International Airport saved almost $200 over a similar flight out of the more convenient Reagan National Airport located near downtown Washington, D.C.

In addition to airline tickets, Orbitz also sells rental cars, lodging, cruises and vacation packages, although Expedia and Travelocity were easier to use and offered more options.

Bidding and flex sites

If you're looking for super savings and you're not terribly picky about your travel times, try one of the sites that let you bid for tickets or "flex'' sites where you have to be highly flexible about travel times and carriers. You can often save a bundle using these sites, especially for last-minute reservations where the airlines typically nail you with high prices.

The key in bidding for an airline ticket is knowing how low to go. With most sites you only get one or two shots to come up with an acceptable price. This means you can't start bidding at a ridiculously low price and then gradually raise the amount. In most cases, though, you should be able to beat the price for a 14-day advance ticket, even if you're making your plans less than two weeks in advance.

Top sites include:

• Cheapfares.com. You agree to fly between 7 a.m. and midnight on the dates you select. One feature shows you the current asking price for a given route so you can either bid higher or lower.
• Hotwire.com gives you the price before you purchase your ticket, but not the precise schedule or the carrier. If you're flexible, this is an excellent option. Because you get the price before the purchase, you can use Hotwire to help gauge bids on other sites.
• Priceline.com requires you fly between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on the dates of choice. Once you've booked your flight, it's next to impossible to change dates or times or get a refund if you made a mistake.