Travel is huge on the Web - second only to computer hardware and software in sales. Online travel sales is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2000, according to an InternetWeek report, and online sales grew more than 300% last year over 1996 sales of $276 million.
That success is both good and bad news for traveling Web-sters. On the upside, there's an amazing array of resources for families going places; on the downside, that amazing array is downright befuddling. As with nearly any subject on the Web, it's information-overload. We need "filterers" - both research experts (good ol'-fashioned reporters and fellow travelers who've been down this road) and category experts (like travel industry insiders) - to help us sift through all the material. The former offers impartiality, the latter in-depth knowledge of the subject. We bring you both this month. Here's our table of contents:
- Travelocity's take (from their vice-president & g.m., Jim Marsicano)
- An interview with "Travel With Kids" guide Teresa Plowright
- Tips from fellow travelers
- Our "grand experiment"
- What we've learned
- Links that soar
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We learned a lot from talking to this month's Web experts. The Internet is great for two types of travel information: 1) finding and booking fares, and 2) travel research (trip reports from people who've been there, weather, currency exchange rates, language & culture differences, and things to do.
For "one-stop shopping"
Jim Marsicano, vice president and general manager of SABRE Interactive (whose sites include Travelocity and easySABRE) represents the former - though Travelocity and its competitors, Microsoft's Expedia and Preview Travel are working hard at being all things to all Web users on the go. Each offers travel information in addition to search engines for finding low air fares.
As Jim told us, they're each attached to a "CRS" (computerized reservation system) - a huge database of domestic and international fares that the airlines update at least several times a day. Expedia is attached to WORLDSPAN; Preview Travel to Apollo. As you've already guessed, Travelocity's CRS is SABRE, updated five times daily, Jim said, which means that when the airlines dump fresh fare data into SABRE, the same information is automatically updated in Travelocity; so we can see what any SABRE-using travel agent sees. "You're seeing the exact data stream that 35,000 travel agents around the world are seeing," Jim said. "What they quote you is exactly what you'll see on the Internet."
That was helpful to us, because fare-finding on the Web seemed to be very random when we experimented with it. Well, it is! In the sense that it never stands still - for us or for travel agents. "If you come back [to Travelocity] four or five times, very possibly you'll continue to improve your offering - or see the price go up," Jim said, explaining the seeming randomness. "Fares are filed five times a day by the airlines. They're adjusting inventory, as they call it. They'll base a flight's initial fares on their historical model to that particular flight, which tells them, say, it'll be really full of business travelers or people willing to pay higher fares. So initially they may only offer 15 seats at the lowest published fare. Then, say 15 days out, the flight has only 100 passengers booked on it, so they'll make more seats available at lower rates. That could happen 15 minutes after you get a quote in our site. So those fares are constantly fluctuating."
Travel agents don't give us all that back-office information; they'll simply quote the fares they see on their screens when they're talking to us. We can find low (often the lowest) fares by phone or Web, but there are two basic differences between using the Web and using a travel agent: 1) the agent can spontaneously change your criteria; for example, in order to pay $200 less maybe you wouldn't mind doing a five-hour layover in Oklahoma City after all (they can spontaneously think of that and find it for you, but you can also change your criteria on the Web page); 2) some travel agents may have access to additional information beyond what's in their CRS - they may have access to a consolidator's extremely low fares on some international routes, for example, or some vacation package deals that are advertised in some Web site you're not aware of. But for unlimited comparison shopping or being your own travel agent, the all-purpose travel sites we mentioned are tremendous resources.
Another thing we learned is why some Web-sters prefer to go directly to the airlines' own sites. "The airline [sites] attract more business travelers and people wedded to the frequent-flyer concept than the three major online-travel sites," Jim said. So, if you have a favorite airline for any reason, you might get information more quickly directly from its site.
Jim also gave us some insight into what it's like to get people to use the Web interface instead of a human one for trip-planning. Despite its rapid growth, getting mainstream America (as opposed to early adopters!) to use the Web to book flights is just like conversion to using ATMs, credit cards, or any other concern about do-it-yourself vs. having an "expert" do it for us. "It's always hard to get an entire culture redone," Jim said. "Change is not the easiest things for people to accept. Our competition today is not Expedia or Preview; really, it's the telephone - only because using the telephone is a way of life. What we think has to happen is that the experience has to be so much more fulfilling - you have to be able to get so much more information on the Internet than what you get on the phone that it becomes the accepted, most convenient manner of doing business. What you're getting on the Web has to be something you can't get anywhere else."
And, in fact, that's already the case, we think - for some people! There is so much information available on the Web about any destination we surfers would pick that we can make the large investment a vacation requires with a lot more security than before possible - unless it's a place that close friends and family members know well and swear by. "Listening to a 15-to-20-second sound byte of a music CD on the Internet before you buy it is great," Jim said, "but people are much more concerned about what they're buying when they're spending $1,000 to $3,000 on something they'll buy."
To get a jump-start
Teresa Plowright is one of those people who help us make better investments in travel, specializing in an area close to all our hearts - family travel! She is the creator of Mining Co.'s Travel With Kids site, a great starting point for research.
Sage: As far as travelers are concerned, what does the Web do best?
Teresa: "People can probably find good fares if they're in certain cities and are prepared to do a fair amount of research, but there are great deals, there's no question. It's also a great way to preview things like vacation rental homes (you can just go to Infoseek and type in "Florida vacation home" or try CyberRentals) - you can get a pretty good sense of where you're going the way you couldn't before. What the Web is good for is as a workhorse for just collecting information - subway maps, fares, schedules - just information. You always need to buy a good travel guide, but for me it's being able to get the information at the particular second I want it, and I always need the information at midnight!"
Sage: How do you get the lowest fares on the Web?
Teresa: "That's a difficult question because it depends so much on where you're going and where you're leaving from.... I subscribe to several travel newsletters and just got one this morning; boy, if you live near Chicago or Houston and can leave on two days' notice, you're in business! But family travel is perhaps not the best set of conditions for finding the best fares - you need to be flexible. Being near hub cities is very important, too. My nearest hub city is Vancouver, and I'll have to wait a long time before I find a great deal leaving from Vancouver. But there are still some great deals out there - even for families.
"By and large, many of the discount sites are run by the airlines. For me the ones that look the most appealing are those in which you enter a starting point [your city], then they offer destination options. You have to be able to say, 'Hey, I could go to Hawaii next week for $800 for the whole family - ok, I'll go there!' If you don't care about where you go, there are opportunities. [Teresa referred to Preview Travel's "Farefinder" page as an excellent resource for this kind of research.] If you have a specific destination - like visiting family - you'll probably have to wade through a lot of sites."
Teresa said she loves to use the Web for trip reports - from people who have been to the places she wants to go. "I'd really be interested in hearing another family's experience. Another way to get that information is newsgroups. You do have to learn a new skill, but it's not that difficult - it probably takes 15 minutes to learn to use a newsgroup. Or you can use Deja News [the Web search engine to 50,000 newsgroups, a quick way to access all the posts in, say, "rec.travel.misc"] - it's a great way to start because then you can know what newsgroups to go to. Travel is a big investment. How many times are you going to take your kids to Club Med in the Caribbean? So you want to know what it's like. I think that getting in touch with other people who've been there is very important."
"Then there's also just the preview - you can find a great map of Washington, DC - a virtual map, where you can click and go to pictures of the place. For some trips you can combine the educational and historical and make it a real learning experience. Salem, Mass. has a great Web site like that. There's more every day. There's a great virtual tour of the Tower of London, specifically for kids. For family-friendly information you need, there are sites that specialize in it [see her "Family Travel Specialists" and "Best Family Travel Links" pages] - tho' you can find some information for families in the big general sites, too. There's just no such thing as "one-stop shopping for family travel."
One other thing Teresa mentioned is how wonderful some of these travel research sites are for pure education. If a virtual tour of the Tower of London "puts you there" (and it includes what a guide would tell you of the history of the place), we all know it would offer a fun way to learn history or research a report.
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Web tips from fellow travelers
From a member of the Sage Team:
"I find that travel arrangements on the Web are harder than they used to be. Last year I did book three flights online. This year I am spending many hours searching for flights and prices and clicking secure sites and waiting for approvals and finding that the fares are not accurate or the best available and that it's not as efficient as calling the travel agent or the airline direct."
From Richard Dyer, who kindly responded to newsgroup queries in rec.travel.misc and alt.travel (if you just want to search for posted information like this, there's a wonderful newsgroup resource on the Web called Deja News - bringing the vast world of newsgroups to Web users):
"Although I use the 'Net to search for special fares, I still book all airline tickets through a travel agent. I find that consolidators generally have the best fares, but these are rarely advertised on the Internet. The weekend specials promoted by many US airlines are good values but not practical for vacation or business travel. The Internet is great for finding unique restaurants or places to stay - mostly from newsgroup information."
From Kay Studie, a friend of Sage and frequent traveler and Web surfer:
"I do most of my research on the Web - from looking into rental properties, to air fares, to special deals, etc. Once I decide where I am going, then I go into a myriad of sites to gather information on the locations, the best place to eat, where to stay, what to see, etc. I haven't bought anything online as yet. I don't 'shop,' per se, for anything other than travel bargains. I just haven't chosen to buy an airline ticket from a Web site....
"I do have e-mails sent to me every week listing the best air fares for the coming week - these I get from
American and Continental. I go into Northwest Airlines's site every week to see what their specials are, since Minneapolis is their hub and our best bet. Microsoft's Expedia I use a lot because it lists the best fares for a given city (that you need to enter). I know there are many other sites that do the same thing, though. Charter companies are usually on the Web and can be accessed for their weekly specials....
"I am going to France the end of this month and have rented a cottage in the south for one week. Going through three or four different sites, I found a number of possibilities and have rented one. Having just been in France the end of February (I found the hotels we stayed at, information on weather, the ski conditions, restaurants, and train information on the Web), I already have a lot of information, but now I will research the area that we are going to and print information to take along."
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The grand experiment
We decided to put Travelocity "3 Best Itineraries" and a couple of airline sites to the test, so we picked a few cities at random. We started simple: Round-trip, Salt Lake City to Boston this month for Patriots Day weekend (for the Boston Marathon). Travelocity quoted $348.50, so did Delta. Good show.
Next, a trip to London this summer, from Boston - for about a month. Went to Travelocity's "3 Best Itineraries" (drilled down from "Travel Reservations" to "Flights" to "3 Best...") and typed July 1-29 into the form, as well as Virgin, United, and British Airways as our preferred airlines. Got two different "best fares" of $561.60 and $617.60, but routed through JFK airport in New York at least one way on all three itineraries offered. Then we went to Virgin Atlantic's "Webseat" page for finding their "best fares." Typed in the same dates and cities, got a fare of $599, non-stop both ways.
Went back to Travelocity the next day, typing in the same data and this time got all United flights, all requiring a stop in New York, but this time two offering the lower $561.60 fare, and one having gone up to $677.70.
Preview Travel's "Farefinder" is quite different from "3 Best Itineraries." It offers a quick, at-a-glance feel for the cost of flying to a whole bunch of cities. We just typed in our own city, clicked on "submit," and got the beginnings of a trip budget.
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What we've learned from all this
There are few shortcuts to becoming a seasoned Web-using traveler, but there are wonderful starting points, resources, and even some deals for whatever one's prime interest is - family vacations, all-discount-all-the-time, business trips, vacation rentals, adventure travel, trip reports, etc. Some of those jump-off points are listed in our links below. The bottom line is, we the people are in the driver's seat now.
When we're just doing air-fare research, we now know:
- We really can be our own travel agent - we see on the Web what agents see on SABRE, Apollo, etc. What that means is, we can now be a lot better informed about what fares, amenities, etc. are available to us, and we can act quickly on that information, using the phone or the Web.
- Fares are changing constantly, so when we see one we like, it's good to grab it.
- For the very lowest fares, flexibility is necessary, which is tough for traveling families. One strategy is to just go to a big full-service site like Preview Travel or Travelocity or a magazine-type site like family.com and look for special packages being advertised or written about, then decide where our family's going and when! That's the sort of flexibility that can take advantage of what the Web can offer.
- It doesn't hurt to check the "lowest" fares in the big travel sites against those that specific airlines are offering, because Expedia, et al, are tied to fare databases that are certainly very large but not all-inclusive. For example, Virgin Atlantic didn't show up in Travelocity's "3 Best Itineraries," even though we typed it in as our top choice - must not be in SABRE.
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Travel links that soar
From Teresa Plowright of Travel With Kids:
Air Fare Deals on the Web - Here, Teresa gives you the lowdown on how well the Web works for deals - plus tips on where to go and links to those places. The caveat's right up front: an inflexible schedule needing to plan well ahead (does that sound like most of us?!) are disadvantages for budget-fare seekers.
Other "Travel With Kids" services worth spotlighting - Family Travel Specialists and Discount Air Fares (really helps you narrow down the otherwise overwhelming list of sites in this category)
Travel newsgroup user Richard Dyer's favorite Web sites: for general travel, Expedia; for active travel, Adventures Great and Small; for a travel magazine, Atlas Travel and Geography Magazine (slow to download - you're going to a Web server in Turkey!); and for travel in Europe, Rick Steves's "Europe Through the Back Door" (we second his vote on this one - thanks, Richard!)
The big travel "e-zines" (offering fare search engines plus extensive travel information)...
Expedia - a rich Microsoft Network resource open to the Internet public. As with Travelocity, you need to register in order to book and buy tickets online.
Preview Travel - the one with the popular "Farefinder" search engine - just plunk in your starting point and a region or category (like "major US cities"), and get representative fares to a whole list of destinations - good for estimating trip costs. Then you can drill down for more detail and specific dates.
Travelocity - Its "3 Best Itineraries" offers a detailed form its members can fill out to get that moment's 3 best fares to and from your designated locales. Then you can book and pay on the spot!
The CIA World Factbook - For information on any country you'd ever want to visit (and useful for elementary school country reports - not to mention newspaper editors everywhere!).
A-Z of Airline Sites - most of 'em are linked to here
The Discount Tickets Home Page - by Netherlands-based European Travel Network, a non-profit organization that promotes the worldwide use of discount air fares and hotel rates.
Disney's family.com has a section just for family travel, including an archive of all back articles on the subject - a great resource! Parents of young kids, don't miss "Games on the Go," by Susan Fox, who has logged 60,000 travel miles with her children in the past eight years (we printed it out).
Family Travel Forum - has a nice list of links to great resources for traveling families and a page called "Family Travel Deals," which includes great deals for travel to and in Spain and an amazing opportunity for travel within Thailand (if you can get yourselves there!).
GORP - This is a nice travel-info site. Their "Family Features" page has lots of travelogues on places great for kids as well as adults. They include "Things To Do" lists for kids.
Have Children Will Travel - the Web version of a $29/year newsletter of that name. Sample articles are presented on the Web site - tips, trip reports, ideas for kids at specific destinations.
Mining Co.'s Budget Travel site - A wonderful distillation of what's out there for budget travelers (nearly everyone not on expense accounts, right?). We learned a lot here about opportunities for the college students in our lives: air-courier travel, whereby single travelers (it's tougher for couples) can reduce their air fares by up to 85% by serving as couriers. Read all about it in "How to Fly as an Air Courier."
Travel.org - a 300+-page directory (they say) of travel links, divided into the categories: travel agents, airlines, lodging, and regions of the world
Yahoo! Travel - a spare directory, like the main Yahoo!, but a mother lode of links (and there's something refreshing about something so free of ad copy!).
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We'd love to hear how the Web has fit into your travel research and booking. What sites have proved useful to you? Have you found great fares or accomodations? If so, where?!! Please e-mail us at feedback@sageway.com.
Next month: Online kids and chat. Sage recently had the pleasure of speaking to parents at an elementary school PTA. We learned a lot. What we heard was that parents are really concerned about chat: How safe are "buddy lists" and online chat? Does chat have any educational benefits? Are there places to chat that are not in AOL? There was also a general concern about where online activities fits into their lives - when sitting in front of a computer is competing for time with sports, music, and just playing with other children in person?! We welcome your experiences and opinions as we research this topic! Do e-mail us at feedback@sageway.com.
