How to Prepare for Booking a Trip Online

While most of us have grown accustomed to surfing the Internet, many shudder at the very thought of even checking e-mail. As for booking a trip to somewhere exotic? Some would much sooner pay full price at a travel agency than to enter unchartered waters online. For those who want to try their hand at booking trips online, using your computer to reach your dream vacation takes nothing more than a cool head, common sense and minor computer savvy.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• computer
• modem
• web browser
• the trusty credit card for booking your reservation

1. Go the extra mile. Don't always go for the bottom barrel price. For example, when deciding on airfare (a major airline site versus Joe Blow's web site) it may be worth it to spend a bit more on a major airline. More so, if you're working on your frequent flyer miles. You might want to go with one of the biggies even if it's $50 more. Not all tickets that you purchase through web sites will enable you to get frequent flier miles. Find that out up front. In the long run, it might be worth it.
2. Realize how much you're really saving. In terms of savings, the more expensive the ticket is, generally, the more savings you'll find on the sites. If you're flying to Singapore from New York City, a ticket can be $800-$2500 or so. Your chances of savings are much much greater. If the ticket is worth only $200 to start with, how much cheaper is the ticket really going to be online?
3. Be flexible. There are many factors you may have to compromise on. In most cases, the cheapest ticket you can get is chock full of restrictions. Restrictions may include when you want to fly, being able to choose the airport or even the airline. And what about the connections? There are many cheap flights that require connections so be willing to deal with that and the possibility of delays and missing flights because of them.
4. Always read the fine print. Find out if the quoted fares include facility charges and taxes. What's more, you can probably forget about the companion coupon that was in Sunday's paper.
5. Play the 'what if...' game. God forbid you get sick, many times, 100 percent you're locked in to your arrangements. Many of these sites, don't have a phone backup or customer service so if you get to the airport and there's some sort of problem, you may not have anyone to call and will scramble calling 411 in God-knows-what-city for a number that may not even exist.
6. Use watchdogs. Publishing information on the Internet is much more inexpensive that publishing information in book form. Don't look at just one review of a restaurant or hotel. Cross check sites and see what average people have to say about a resort or airline before booking your trip.

Tips & Warnings

• Try the trustworthy test. Type in your age at 66 and see if a discounted senior fare comes up. If so, they're probably on the level.
• Check up on them. Check to see if an online agency is a member of the American Society of Travel Agents. The group accredits agencies and must abide by a strict code of conduct. They will go to bat and mediate a situation that concerns transactions between members and consumers. Also check with the U.S. Tour Operators Association.
• Be aware of semantics. Just because a site touts a fare as "the lowest fare" doesn't necessarily mean that it is. It might be THEIR lowest fare. A hot deal might not seem so hot after you've shopped around. All that glitters is not gold.
• Stick with reputable companies -- major airlines, major tour companies, major sites. Stay with what you know.
• In the end, online sites like Travelocity and Expedia are nothing more than online travel agencies. So, in realizing that, if the cost isn't much higher, a consumer just may want to go to the corner travel agency. It just may save you a lot of hassle and risk.
• Use auction sites as a last resort. Shop around and compare ahead of time because once you put in a bid at an auction site (like priceline.com), you can't bid anywhere else and are locked in because if you get the fare, you HAVE to buy for it. I think that's a pretty big risk, considering if anything comes up, you can't even cancel your bid.