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Mobile Computing & Communications • June 2001

When Daniel Nichols showed up at McCarren International Airport one day in February for a flight from Las Vegas to his home in Schaum-burg, IL, he was in for a rude awakening. He had booked a round-trip Las Vegas-Chicago itinerary (using both Midway and O’Hare airports) on National Airlines with a popular Web-based travel agency; but when he got to the check-in desk, he was told that National didn’t fly between Las Vegas and O’Hare.

As it turned out, the Las Vegas-based carrier had applied with the Federal Aviation Administration to start service between the two airports, had filed the paperwork but the service had been delayed, leaving Mr. Nichols high and dry. Nevertheless, the dot-com travel agency sold him a McCarren-O’Hare ticket and failed to contact him so he could make alternate plans when it turned out that there would be no such flight.

To make things worse, National refused to put him on a competing airline’s flight, so he ended up spending the nighr sleeping on the terminal floor and eventually left Las Vegas the next morning. Such are the joys and pains of hooking air travel on the Web. In all likelihood, had he hooked his trip with a knowledgeable and earnest travel agent, or even with the airlines toll-free number, this would never have happened. The lack of accurate information is just one of the gotchas when booking travel on the Web.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Web and use it on a weekly basis to price trips, book travel and perform research on potential destinations. The problem is that even the best sites are no substitute for a thoughtful and experienced human being making your travel arrangements. Here are some of the other things that can go awry when you travel the Web way

You Buy It, You Fly It

I’ve found out the hard way that some tickets bought on the Web can’t be changed or refunded, even if you’re willing to pay an exorbitant fee. For instance, Hotwire (http://www.hotwire.com), which claims to sell tickets at up to 40 percent off the lowest sale prices, is more up-flint about this than most of its competitors. The site dearly states: “All purchases are final. Airline tickets can-not be cancelled, refunded, exchanged or transferred to other individuals. Credit will not be given for any unused tickets and cannot be used toward ally future purchases. Change flies are not an option." Others are not so frank.

Plus, not all sites list all airlines, which means there’s no one—stop shop for fares and schedules. Often, the best fare will he on a smaller niche airline like Pan Am, Shuffle America, Vanguard or Southwest, which hardly qualifies as a small player anymore since it carries molt passengers than TWA or America West. Expedia (http://www.expedia.com) doesn’t list fares for Southwest, Pan Am or Vanguard; Travelocity (http://www.travelocity.com) lists South-west and misses Pan Am; Sidestep (http://www.sidestep.com) misses both Pan Am and Shuttle America. By contrast, Orbitz, the soon-to-open Web site of major U.S. air carriers Continental, Delta, American. United and Northwest (http://www.itasoftware.com or http://www.orbitz.com), lists almost every airline. It missed Pan Am and won’t book tickets on Southwest yet lists its fares.

Cyberfares are often the cheapest way to fly, but frequently this fare is only available on the Internet. Southwest’s online fires, for example, only require a one-night stay, which is perfect for most business types. But most third-party sites don’t list cvherfares with published ones, so it’s nearly impossible to compare.

I’ve found that Orhitz is the only site smart enough to figure out the lowest one-way fares every time. Try this experiment: Search for the lowest one-way fare from St. Louis to Boston on Expedia, Travelocity and Orhitz. Travelocity will offer you a fare of over $700 on a typical day; as will Expedia. Orbitz, however, will calculate a split fare, pricing a ticket from St. Louis to Baltimore and one from Baltimore to Boston, for a total of $290 or less if there’s a sale going on.

That’s pretty smart. But the bottom line is that regardless of how glitzv and sophisticated it is, no Web site beats a great travel agent. Just for kicks, call a couple of travel agents and ask them to find the cheapest St. Louis-Boston trip. If they come back with a $700 flight, tell them thanks but no thanks.

On the other hand, if the travel agent gives you a fare under $300, then you know you’ve found a good agent. If the agent tells you there’s an even lower cvberfare available, explains the restrictions and offers to help you book the trip, then you’ve found a great travel agent whom you shouldn’t let get away.

George Hobica, America Online/Digital City’s Travel Guy at http://www.digtalcity.com/travel, is never at home but can be reached at georgehobica@aol.com.

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