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Come fly with me: a few sites offer discounted airfare, but comparison shopping is the best strategy.


The convenience of online travel booking has sent many agents the way of the dinosaur dinosaur (dī`nəsôr) [Gr., = terrible lizard], extinct land reptile of the Mesozoic era. The dinosaurs, which were egg-laying animals, ranged in length from 2 1-2 ft (91 cm) to about 127 ft (39 m). . For international travel, multiple destinations, other special trips, an agent might be your best bet, but for the do-it-yourselfer do-it-your·self
adj.
Of, relating to, or designed to be done by an amateur or as a hobby: do-it-yourself home repairs; a do-it-yourself sailboat kit.
 searching for a great deal on domestic airfare air·fare  
n.
Fare for travel by aircraft.

Noun 1. airfare - the fare charged for traveling by airplane
fare, transportation - the sum charged for riding in a public conveyance
, look no further than the nearest Internet Internet

Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the
 connection.

Type "airfare" in any search engine, and you're likely to find everything from commercial airline sites to online booking agencies such as Travelocity, Expedia, and Orbitz to ticket consolidators such as Hotwire and Priceline. With so many options, it can be overwhelming. Just invest a little time and effort and you're sure to find the airfare deal that: suits you best.

GO TO THE SOURCE

Check the cost of your trip with major airline carriers to get a good sense of the price range once you move on to the online agencies. Try to find out which airlines have established hubs in your area. Looking for Looking for

In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with.
 the airline with the most real estate in the airport nearest you should provide a clue. Those will be the ones likely to have some of the best fares since they offer more flights. You're also more likely to get a nonstop HP's brand name for its fault-tolerant servers, which range in size from four CPUs to 4,000 CPUs. The NonStop line was created by Tandem Computers, which was acquired by Compaq, which later became part of HP.  flight. As an added incentive, individual carriers often offer bonus miles to frequent fliers frequent flier
n.
One who travels often by air, especially on one airline.



frequent-fli
 for booking through their site.

Once you've got your travel dates and a sense of the fares, it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a  to do some real comparison shopping.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS

Before you head off to sites such as Expedia or Orbitz, check out FareReport.com. This site will give you airfare averages on routes throughout the country. You'll find out which airline has the largest market share for your destination and airlines with the lowest fare. Unfortunately, FareReport.com doesn't have every U.S. departure city, and international destinations are somewhat limited.

With your airline price quotes and fare report in hand, its time to check out the likes of Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz. These online booking sites have deals with numerous carriers and usually offer choices from several airlines. Since they only provide access to airlines' published fares, these sites usually give you similar results. Once published and filed with the government, a fare is available directly from the airline as well as from all its appointed agents, including brick-and-mortar travel agencies, online agencies, and those that sell both online and offline.

The Airfare Checker check·er  
n.
1.
a. One, such as an inspector or examiner, that checks.

b. One that receives items for temporary safekeeping or for shipment: a baggage checker.

2.
 at BetterBidding.com (www.betterbidding.com/airfarechecker) lets you check all three online agencies at the same time. You will need to know the three letter airport code (i.e., LAX not Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. ) of your departure and arrival cities to use this site. Plug in your travel details and you'll get a split screen that displays the results from Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz.

One advantage the booking sites have over single carrier sites is that they can often find better deals for multiple-destination trips because they cart combine flights from different carriers. Some booking sites offer special tools to help you find the best deal. Orbitz Deal Detector detector: see particle detector.  lets you plug in a target price for a flight and will alert you via e-mail when that price, or a ballpark figure ballpark figure n (inf) → chiffre approximatif

ballpark figure (inf) nRichtzahl f

ballpark figure n (
, is available.

DEEP DISCOUNTS

You've probably heard of friends or co-workers getting tickets to some fabulous destination for hundreds less than you thought possible. Not everyone is related to an airline employee, so there must be a way. There is. Ticket consolidators, such as Priceline and Hotwire, also have deals with the airlines. However, these sites have access to unpublished fares--typically made up of unsold flight inventory that is purchased wholesale. These fares usually have more restrictions on travel dates, cancellations, rebooking fees, upgrades, etc.

To protect their airline partners' fare structures, both Hotwire and Priceline obscure some, or all, of the flight information until the purchase is made.

With both Hotwire and Priceline, you're locked in to buying once you accept, the deal or name your price for a flight so be sure it's the best option. If you still can't find a price that you're willing to pay then you'll at least know how low to bid to get the best deal available. All of this can be achieved in less than an hour in front of your computer. And isn't that a small price to pay for the best price you can find?

YOU'D BETTER SHOP AROUND

Want to get the best deals on flying the friendly skies "Friendly Skies" is the second episode of the first season of Journeyman. Plot
Dan and his wife plan a weekend getaway in Oregon until he is transported back to November 20, 1975 and helps a woman give birth on an airplane.
? Here's how and where to start:

1. Check the cost of your trip on a few major airline to get a good sense of the price range.

2. Head to an online hub such as FareReport.com and the Airfare Checker at BetterBidding.com (www.betterbidding.com/airfarechecker).

3. Consider ticket consolidators such as Hotwire.com and Priceline.com.

4. Book your fare, pack your bags, and head out.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2004, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:Quick Trips; BetterBidding.com
Author:Muhammad, Tariq
Publication:Black Enterprise
Geographic Code:1U9CA
Date:Sep 1, 2004
Words:808
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