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Travel
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Travel Services
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www.travelscape.com
claims that it "is the most simple, usable and complete
do-it-yourself travel site on the Internet. We offer the best
value in all-inclusive travel at any price for both leisure
and business travelers. Travelscape.com has a unique "10
clicks or less" guarantee that it will outperform any
other online travel site in providing the quickest, easiest
and most convenient way to configure and book any air, lodging
and auto rental package to top destinations in the U.S."
www.priceline.com
allows consumers to bid for airline tickets and accommodations.
"Simply post your request 24 hours a day and guarantee
your offer with a major credit card. Priceline then goes about
finding a seller who decides whether or not to fill the request.
With priceline, there is no auction, no bidding and no back
and forth. Simply name your price and let priceline find a
seller." (Caution: while this approach may get you a
bargain, read the rules first. Generally, in order for this
service to be worthwhile, your travel plans must be flexible,
since you cannot choose a particular airline or flight time.
In addition, other limitations apply, such as inability to
earn frequent-flier miles, and inability to submit more than
one bid (unless your subsequent bid is for a different airport
or a different date.)
www.frommers.com
is "Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel On Line." It
includes lots of bargains detailed in "Arthur Frommer's
Budget Travel Newsletter, published seven days a week, on
matters that affect your own next vacation trip--and nothing
else," "a totally comprehensive treatment of several
thousands of pages on every major topic, problem and opportunity
in travel," "full of opinion."
www.travelocity.com
is a full-service travel agency, including vacation guides
and "Road Warrior," which provides the "inside
scoop" on events and restaurants at your travel destination.
www.webflyer.com
claims to be "the Web's frequent-flyer authority,"
with tips on how to earn and use frequent-flyer miles.
www.luxurylink.com
is designed to provide upscale travel buyers with a comprehensive,
accurate and informative research tool for luxurious travel.
This site is rated "best" by Travel and Leisure magazine for
high-end hotel and travel packages worldwide.
www.lastminutetravel.com
specializes in unsold seats, rooms, etc., at special "last
minute" prices.
www.egghead.com/atauction/travel/travel.htm?source=splash_32
is Egghead.com's travel auction site.
http://travel.americanexpress.com/travel/personal
is a full-service travel web site, including a page for last-minute
bargains.
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Other full-service travel agencies:
Air Fares - General
| www.itasoftware.com
is the website for a software-development company for airlines
but it can be used by anyone to search for fares. Fares must be
then booked through another means (another travel website, an
airline, or a travel agent). Many frequent fliers tout this site
as having the best searching capability, although it requires
some learning to use efficiently.
www.mobissimo.com is "a
meta-search engine, We retrieve and display prices from over 157
different sites across the world in real-time based on your
search criteria. When you see a price you like and click on the
details link, we send you directly to the site where we found
the information. Perhaps most importantly, the prices you see on
our site are EXACTLY what you would see if you conducted the
search directly on Orbitz, Cheaptickes, American Airlines, Jet
Blue or any of the 157 other sites we search."
www.airdeals.com
offers "up to 20% off every published fare on a major carrier"
and "last-minute special fares."
www.farereport.com is a
website of the U.S. Transportation Department which keeps track
of airfares charged by the major airlines. This site is useful in
benchmarking fares and in finding cheaper alternate airports. It
also quickly identifies the airline with the most flights on a
route, and the airline with the cheapest average fare.
www.farecompare.com
offers historical prices for airline tickets in 77,000 markets
in the U.S. and Canada -- data that haven't been available
before to consumers. This website helps you know when is the
best time to purchase a fare. FareCompare shows the lowest
prices offered by month for the next 11 months in any U.S.
market, and offers a "Fare Trend" graph showing whether the
lowest prices have been increasing, decreasing or holding
steady. You can quickly see whether prices in that market bounce
around or stay consistent. And with the current prices,
FareCompare offers a one-star to four-star rating of how good
the offering is compared with past prices
www.farecast.com goes a
step further, using sophisticated data-mining techniques to
predict whether prices for a particular trip are likely to go up
or down over the next week.
www.kayak.com is a travel
search engine that now has a feature called Buzz that shows the
best prices found by other Kayak users on the most searched
destinations over the past 48 hours.
www.airfarewatchdog.com
claims to "use real people, who actually compare airfares on
airelines that the computer programs can't, such as Southwest
and JetBlue. Plus we include smaller airlines you may never have
heard of, like Allegiant Aire, which sells fares only on its own
site." |
Air Fares - International
| www.cfares.com
searches airline databases, travel agents, and wholesalers for
international airfare deals. A Gold membership is free; a
Platinum membership, available for a fee, may result in even
lower unpublished fares. This site is rated "best" for
international airfares by Travel and Leisure magazine.
www.flylc.com
helps travelers find discount European flights with budget
airlines. Find flights by selecting an airport, a country, or
airline.
www.1800flyeurope.com
"offers cheap airfares to Europe,
including flights to London, Paris, Rome and more! These cheap
flights to Europe are discounted tickets at the lowest rates." |
Hotels and other accommodations
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www.hoteldiscount.com
offers "rates up to 65% off" and "rooms for
sold-out dates." It claims that it "is the first
nationwide discount hotel booking service available directly
over the Web. Hotel Discounts offers savings up to 65% off
regular hotel rates in some of the world's most expensive
cities. Our huge buying power provides you the same rooms,
at the same hotels, for a great price!"
www.staycheap.com
offers reservations for hotels in California, Oregon and Washington
state as well as British Columbia. It claims to offer "Dramatic
discounts and best availability on over 1500 hotels, motels,
resorts, inns and B&Bs from Vancouver B.C. to San Diego.
We negotiate volume discounts with our hotels and pass the
savings on to you! Plus, our volume business encourages hotels
to provide us with last room availability so we can often
locate a room for you even when hotels are sold out."
www.1800usahotels.com
offers "Worldwide Discount Hotels, Lodging Accommodations,
Guest Suites, Resorts, & Motels With Up To 65% Savings."
www.resortquest.com
claims to be "your one-stop resource for renting
quality vacation homes and condos in premier resort destinations.
We offer thousands of privately owned vacation residences
in some of the world's finest resort areas."
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Cruises
| www.kayak.com and
www.sidestep.com are rated
by Travel and Leisure Magazine as "best" for cruise packages. To
find the lowest fares, try both sites: Kayak searches among
leading online cruise agencies, and Sidestep tracks current
prices via third-party vendors' web sites.
www.cruise.com
is "the Internet's largest cruise seller." It claims
that it "will give you 5-10% off the cruise line's lowest
discount price the first time you call. There's no haggling
or negotiating - you get the best possible price up front."
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