Hotwire is one of a few of a new breed of comprehensive but controversial travel sites in that it is owned by a consortium of major airlines (America West, American Airlines, Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways), as well as other major investors. Even though owned by some major airlines, Hotwire searches hundreds of airlines in an unbiased manner. I experimented using Hotwire and it was quick and easy, and found airfares that are typically lower than most of the other travel sites. The one downside to Hotwire is the lack of individual flight or carrier selection. There is user input for the dates of travel, number of stops, daytime or "redeye" flights, and jet or prop power, but that is the limit of the selection. The next screen shows the lowest fare, without listing flight times or carriers. The user has 30 minutes to accept or reject the fare. If accepted (and acceptance is final), a credit card number is given over a secure link, the purchase is confirmed, and then the user sees the itinerary for the first time. With a few exceptions, paperless "E-Tickets" only are issued. For the MIA-BPT flight, my daughter actually received some excellent flights, nonstop Miami to DFW on American, then DFW to "Southeast Texas Regional". Her return flights were at convenient times as well. She may have been lucky. International flights, hotels and rental cars are available on Hotwire as well. Hotwire is a member of the Better Business Bureau online reliability program.

Another new airline owned travel site, not yet in full operation is Orbitz at http://www.orbitz.com. Owned predominately by American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United Airlines, Orbitz recently received federal approval to go into full operation, citing the additional competition it will provide. At present, Orbitz only offers domestic flights, but when it is in full operation in June, it will offer domestic and international flights on 455 airlines, lodging at 210 hotel chains, 42 rental car companies, 30 tour operators, and 8 cruise lines. Orbitz claims that it will have in one location all of the "internet only" specials from approximately 30 carriers, which can make it easier for the last minute traveler to find "deals". This site claims that it has "The only search engine to display fare and flight information from hundreds of airlines in a completely unbiased and comprehensive fashion." It will also list the last minute, deep-discounted Internet special fares for weekend travel that airlines frequently run on their own sites. Tickets purchased on Orbitz are eligible for frequent flyer miles. Once in full operation, Orbitz will likely be a major competitor.

According to published reports, the two most widely used comprehensive sites are Travelocity at http://www.travelocity.com and Expedia, at http://expedia.com. Travelocity is a descendent of the American Airlines Sabre system, while Expedia started as a Microsoft owned travel site; both are substantially independent now. Both offer airline tickets, cruises, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages. Both offer a free email service that notifies the registered user of any significant airfare changes on city pairs selected by the traveler. I have personally used these email alerts to book tickets when there is a substantial drop in airfares; for a recent trip to New York, I immediately bought several tickets when there was an $83 drop in airfares. Timing is important on these email alerts, because these changes may be very short lived - the fare to NYC went up later that afternoon, after I had locked in our bargain fares.

Travelocity claims to list hundreds of airlines, 47,000 hotels, 50 car-rental agencies and up to 70,000 tour and cruise packages. This site recently started its "Good Buy" program "… to provide negotiated airline fares often below published fares … two kinds of fares negotiated with the airlines: those that display airlines and schedules, and others that don't immediately reveal the airline or the schedule but offer even more savings." Now offering discounted package vacations under its own label, Travelocity was recently acknowledged by some in the travel media as the best single source for such packages. One interesting feature with Travelocity is a feature that seems to be made for our local travelers. If, for example, BPT is listed as the departure point, the site will also present an option for other nearby airports, if there are fares that are lower. In a recent test I performed, using BPT to a variety of destinations, Travelocity also showed options from both Houston airports as well as Lake Charles. For the budget minded traveler, this could be a benefit. This site also offers the option of searching for tickets based on fares, when price is most important, or by schedule. For those who need vacation ideas, Travelocity offers another interesting feature - simply enter your interests and travel budget, and its "Dream Plan Go" feature will produce a series of vacations that meet your criteria and budget.

While extremely competitive with Travelocity, and offering many similar services, Expedia has a few additional "benefits" as well. Like other major travel sites, Expedia can search hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels, cruises, vacation packages, and rental cars. Flights can be sorted by fare or by date and time. Two features that I especially find helpful are the "Fare Compare" which shows all of the airfares users had previously purchased on the selected routes, and the "Fare Calendar". This "calendar" shows all of the bargain fares between cities, the airlines offering them, and the dates that they may be available. For the traveler with a flexible schedule, some decent bargains can often be found with this tool. The companion "Timetable Search" is for the traveler that needs to travel at specific times, and can now select the best fares for those specific times. The "Airline Fare List" shows all of the published fares, and the "Price Matcher" offers the traveler a chance to name their own airfares, but first verifies that the fare offered is below that already available. If awarded, these "auction" fares cannot be cancelled, refunded, or the tickets changed. The "bidder" will have an answer within 15 minutes of their bid, but has almost no choice of times or airlines. Unlike some other popular "airfare auction" sites, the price bid is complete - no other charges or fees are added. It is possible to gets some very good bargains this way at the expense of a lack of selection. Expedia is offering a new service, "Bargain Fares" which are "…special negotiated rates with 20 airlines, serving both domestic and international destinations… for travelers who are price-sensitive and have flexible schedules … Bargain Fares show customers the final price up front, without forcing them to guess or bid on a flight." Expedia has well earned its place as one of the top travel sites on the net.

There are many other fine, comprehensive general purpose travel sites on the net; I recommend that travelers check them out and decide for themselves, using good comparison shopping techniques to find what is best for them. Sites such as http://www.lowestfare.com, http://www.onetravel.com, and http://www.cheaptickets.com offer excellent service, and a wide range of travel options for airfare, cruises, hotels, and vacation packages. Cheaptickets now offers what they claim to be the widest selection of deeply discounted airfares, in excess of one million fares from 40 major airlines and charter services, as well as discounted condo rentals. OneTravel now has a large selection of "White Label" fares which searches published fares, consolidator fares, sale fares, and other often unlisted travel bargains. Similar to other deeply discounted fare services, with "White Label" the price is quoted and the ticket purchased before the carrier and schedule are disclosed.

Not to be outdone by the mega-travel sites, virtually every airline has their own websites that list not just their own flights, but also the flights of other carriers, cars, hotels, and packages. Most of the carrier websites offer incentives to purchase tickets directly from their sites. Published claims state that it costs the carrier only $1 to process an Internet transaction, but an average of $12 to process a telephone ordered ticket. Therefore, it is in the airlines' best interest to sell as many seats themselves directly from their website, and also avoid paying commissions to others. These incentives commonly include extra frequent flyer miles (often double or 2000 - 5000 extra miles), or special airfares available only directly from the carriers' websites. Southwest Airlines at www.southwest.com offers "Click 'N Save" Internet only airfares that clearly show the fares currently available on each flight, and seat availability. Virtually all of the airlines offer a free weekly email service that during mid-week sends subscribers a list of under booked flights available on a last minute basis at deep discounts. Often including under booked hotels, surplus rental cars, vacation packages, and cruise ship vacancies, travelers who can leave on short notice can occasionally find some super bargains.

Other travel companies, such as the hotels, cruise lines, consolidators, and rental car companies also typically offer "internet only" deals on their websites, and weekly email specials. Personally, I have taken advantage of such specials from Holiday Inn at http://www.basshotels.com, Marriott at http://www.marriott.com, and Alamo and Dollar Rental Car companies.

I recommend that those interested in last minute travel deals go to the travel websites of their choice, and sign up for the email alerts.

For those eligible, including nurses, firefighters, any field of law enforcement, doctors, EMTs, and other emergency service personnel active, volunteer, or retired, there is a special travel site offering spectacular discounts on last minute timeshares all over the world. The site at http://www.911travel.com offers flat rate pricing for luxury timeshares wherever they may be, and regardless of size of the unit. These units range from efficiency and studio size to three bedroom, and are priced based on the length of the advance rental. Any listed timeshare reserved three to four weeks in advance, for eight days and seven nights, anywhere in the world is $387. Any timeshares still available two weeks or less are $299. Updated every Tuesday and Thursday, this list includes, as I type this, Atlantic City, Hershey, Ocean City, Williamsburg, many all over Florida, several in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Ixtapa, and Cancun, Freeport (Bahamas), Nevada, Utah, and Europe. Photos and amenities are included for most of the properties. What is nice about this is that even if the traveler pays for the week, and only stays for three or four nights, the luxury lodging is typically less than an economy hotel. Several police officer and firefighters I have worked with have taken advantage of the deals, and had only words of praise.

The smart traveler who is willing to spend his own time researching travel options may not just take control of their own itinerary, but will likely save money.

Ira Wilsker is an Instructor IV of Management Development at Lamar Institute of Technology. Ira has been working with computers since 1965 when he took his first computer class at the Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago. A past president of the Golden Triangle PC Club, and a board member of the Association of PC Users Groups, Ira is a frequent guest on the local television news, and has lectured locally to internationally on a variety of computer topics ranging from computer and Internet basics, to CyberCrime, and Community Oriented Policing. Ira is the host of the Computer Information Hour on KLVI 560AM every Tuesday, 6-7pm

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