Beginner's Guide to Travel Websites

The days are getting longer, birds are about to be singing but you are still stuck under three feet of snow. It's time to book that spring break trip to the South you have been saving up for. You have been saving, right? Well, fear not, as there are ways to find cheap travel without resorting to cramming yourself into a bus filled with questionable characters. You still are probably going to be crammed into a hotel room with your friends though.

There is no question that the Internet has made an impact on our lives, but it has changed the travel business more than any other industry. It used to be that only travel agencies had direct connections into airline reservation systems and agents knew how to read the cryptic information housed within them, such as fare basis codes and ticket classes.

That all changed in 1997 when airline reservation systems became linked to travel websites and the power was shifted to the consumer. We now take travel research and the ability to check and reserve flights for granted since it is such an easy online process. But there is a trick to searching effectively and buying wisely, as most travel websites actually charge you extra for the service that they provide.

To book your flight, you can head to any one of the major airline sites to search directly for flights, but chances are that you will not find the cheapest flight due to inconsistencies with their own search algorithms. A better choice is to look within the major travel sites that will sort and dig deeply among multiple carriers. This will help you to weed through a larger selection of flights so that you can choose the best times and fares for you.

Websites such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia offer great search technologies but since 2002 they have instituted a $5 fee for booking travel through their services. If you are booking a trip with a rental car and hotel along with the airfare, this fee may be worth it in regard to 'one-stop-shop' convenience. But you will find some interesting inconsistencies with pricing on these travel sites and much higher taxes than from the airlines directly.

I searched for a weekend trip from Dallas, Texas to my old college town Springfield, Mo., via the major travel sites. It is interesting to see the pricing differences that I found.

Price per person (including taxes and fees): $248.40

Price per person (including taxes and fees): $254.39

Price per person (including taxes and fees): $253.40

If you care more about the price and less about the days, times and airlines that you travel, two additional websites can trim a few more dollars from a journey. The problem that I have with these is that in order to further discount the fares, they can choose flight times that are what I call 'extreme off-peak' and a friend of mine found himself leaving for a trip at 9 p.m. on Saturday and returning home at 6 a.m. the next day. These flights do not let you accrue frequent flier mileage on the trips either. One such site, Hotwire only let me see rudimentary detail about the flight such as 'morning departure and evening return' but offered a rate that was $50 cheaper than the other websites in my test search.

You may find yourself with a stop-over in a connecting city, which, in my test case would triple my flight time. Priceline is even worse in that regard, as you only get to pick the day of travel and you have to wait for the price offer that you make to be approved - after giving up your credit card information. It's like buying a ticket without knowing anything about the trip. That being said, their service does work well with booking hotels. I find myself staying in better hotels for less money.

If you are looking for year-round travel savings, sign up for a frequent flier program with the major airlines that come to your local airport. Once you are registered, subscribe to their 'net savers' or last minute airfare discounts. A week or two before a flight you will get an email notification of discounted airfares for destinations that have many open seats.

Airlines started offering this feature in the late 1990s as a way to fill planes with customers who would otherwise not travel due to the expense. The catch is that you are limited to specific travel times and frequently need to return on a less-traveled Monday rather than a Sunday. I have explored cities this way that I normally would not have visited.

Armed with this information, it is time to get online and start your travel searching. Book your trip early since seats get more expensive as the planes get full with passengers. For hotels, I personally like to use Expedia and the best flights in my opinion come from Orbitz.

If you want to travel light for spring break, don't worry about taking a laptop as most cities have Internet café's or hotel business centers where you can drop an email to mom and dad. You may also want to temporarily change your cell phone plan to one that includes multi-city roaming, so that you do not get charged extra exorbitant fees for using it when you setup the party rendezvous.

Dave Mathews has flown around the world for both business and pleasure and has accumulated an excess of one million miles in the air. More stories and video clips on technology can be found on his website at www.davemathews.com.

© 2008, Young Money Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Money Saving Tips

• Look at nearby cities to fly into for more savings but expect a longer drive
• Check for flights that leave a day early or come back a day later
• Trips with a Saturday overnight stay will often be the least expensive
• Connect through another city - Layovers mean two cities to see instead of one
• Get bumped - Passengers are usually rewarded with travel vouchers and meal tickets for giving up a reserved seat

Expedia.com

• Vacation suggestions are inclusive
• Tons of travel tips and guides are that are great for new travelers
• Hotels show distance from local attractions
• Photos of hotels are shown to eliminate surprises
• Outbound flights are chosen first and then return options
• You can choose your airline seat preference

Travelocity.com

• Cheaper flights are clearly displayed
• Hotels are suggested for your trip, hotel photos provided
• Outbound flights are chosen first and then return options

Orbitz.com

• Clean interface
• Competing carriers and pricing are laid out in a matrix
• All of the legs of the flights are shown
• You can sort selections based on price, departure time or shortest flight
• Orbitz will email you if the price drops on the flight you chose
• Total price of the tickets is clearly shown, including taxes

Hotwire.com

• Save some extra money; but with an unknown airline and time
• Offers traditional flight booking for price comparisons
• Gives you rough estimates of travel times
• You will not get frequent flier mileage when using this service
• Bad: You have to book the flight in order to see the airline and schedule

Priceline.com

• Make your own offer - Make it reasonable or it won't be accepted
• Offers traditional booking for regular flights to compare pricing
• You have no idea of the carrier or flight times
• No frequent flier mileage earned when using this service
• This process works great for hotels to stay in once you get there

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