- - - - - - - - - - T A B L E_T A L K A Wanderlust reader needs advice on an upcoming trip to Argentina. Don't cry for him, post your advice in Table Talk R E C E N T L Y America, grow up! By David Downie The French and Italians decry the Clinton brouhaha (01/29/98) Passages By Ralph McCarthy Four views of the expat's life in Japan (01/28/98) Paradise found By Tracy Johnston An unspoiled oasis in the Egyptian desert (01/27/98) Neglected Classics By Pete Hamill Erico Verissimo's extraordinary "Mexico" deserves to be republished (01/26/98) Mondo Weirdo By Tim Wall Bad trip: The pilots locked themselves out of the cockpit! (01/23/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Road warrior archives		- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THERE REALLY ARE ADVANTAGES TO MAKING YOUR TRAVEL PLANS ON THE WEB BY JENN SHREVE | My entrance into the world of online booking was a hesitant one. It began with my looking up flight schedules and prices on the Internet, then grabbing for the phone to order out of fear my credit card numbers might be snatched up by some cyber thief. But as encryption devices proved themselves trustworthy, and time constraints made sitting on hold with a travel agent -- or worse, visiting an agent's office -- nearly impossible, I succumbed, booking a round-trip flight entirely online. I was amazed by how easy it was. Since I knew where to go, I simply logged on to a reputable online agency, found the lowest fares area and plugged in various flight times and dates until I found the perfect combination of schedule and price. I carefully entered my credit card number and voilà, minutes later an e-ticket arrived in my in box. I never wondered if I'd gotten the best deal, because I was in control. No time was wasted sitting around on hold or waiting for my agent to get done helping another customer. And at the airport, instead of wasting away in a baggage check-in line the size of the Great Wall of China, I was escorted to an empty queue set aside for online customers. I was converted. I am not alone in making the switch to online travel agencies. Growth rates for the Internet booking industry have been astounding. According to Jupiter Communications, a leading new media research group, online travel revenues -- which include advertising on the sites as well as booking commissions -- grew from $276 million in 1996 to an estimated $827 million in 1997, an increase of more than 200 percent. Last year 13.8 million Americans used the Internet to research a trip and 6.3 million made reservations online, according to a November 1997 study by the Travel Industry Association of America. "In '97, about 1 percent of air tickets were sold online, and that's probably a good proxy for the whole travel industry; we haven't looked in detail at other products," says Nicole Vanderbilt, director of digital commerce at Jupiter. Vanderbilt predicts that number will leap to 2.4 percent in '98. According to Vanderbilt, the growth of online travel purchases is explained by three basic factors: "One is the general growth in the online audience; another is the growth in the percentage of people willing to book and pay for travel online; then the third would be a growing budget for those online travel buyers -- somebody who bought one ticket in '97 may buy two or more in '98." Vanderbilt describes that last explanation as the "once you're in, you're in philosophy." Like me, it seems, once travelers have purchased a ticket online, they're unlikely to enter a streetside travel agency again. Why? What does the Internet offer that traditional agents can't provide? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES ARE NEVER CLOSED Ron Pernick, director of communications at Preview Travel, points out the most obvious reason to choose an online travel agent over a traditional one: 24-hour customer service, in the office, in your pajamas or at a cybercafe sipping beer. "We're open 24 hours a day. I don't know when was the last time you tried to call your travel agent at even 7 o'clock in the evening. You can't get them," Pernick says. "A nice portion of our sales happen outside traditional business hours. People are shopping at times when a traditional agent can't support them." Of course, an online travel agent doesn't help much when you're stranded at an airport at 3 a.m. with a canceled flight and nowhere to stay. Realizing this, almost all the online sites provide phone support for emergencies -- or if you simply need to hear the sound of another person's voice before handing over your credit card. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE TRAVELER IS IN CONTROL What used to drive me bonkers about making travel arrangements was idling in an office while an agent jabbered away on the phone with various airlines and hotels. Resisting the urge to leap up and yank the phone out of the agent's hands, I'd shift in my seat, anxiously imagining what was being agreed upon about my vacation. Like sitting through turbulence on an airplane, I'd feel completely without control of the situation. Control is the main reason to book online, says Erik Blachford, product manager at Expedia. "There's this sense of being in control of your own travel. That's pretty powerful for people," he explains. "Whether you need information or whether you're actually trying to dive down into itinerary planning, either way there's so many places to look for information, it's nuts. If we can pull it all together in one place for people, that's a real benefit for going online." Online reservation sites run off of Computer Reservation Systems, computerized databases that travel agents use, which list availability and pricing for flights, hotels and car rentals. The information is provided by airlines, car rental companies and hotel organizations, which update the various systems continually. Whenever a ticket is bought using a specific CRS, the airline is informed; it then passes along the revised information to the other CRSs. What Web-based travel agents do is create an interface between a CRS and an Internet browser that makes sense to an average user. Online customers, then, are armed with all the information that's available to travel agents; in addition, online sites often complement that information with guidebook-type content such as descriptions of hotels and local attractions. Does it matter which CRS an agent uses? Not usually, according to David Rush, director of training at Echols International, a school that trains travel agents. But it is important to know that the main CRSs are owned by airlines: Sabre, the company that owns the online travel site Travelocity, is in turn owned by the parent corporation of American Airlines; Apollo, the CRS that both Preview Travel and the Internet Travel Network use, is owned by United Airlines' parent company; Worldspan, the CRS of Expedia, is owned by Delta Air Lines; and a CRS called System One is owned by Continental Airlines. Although recent federal regulations prohibit CRSs from favoring one airline over another, if there are several similar fares, CRSs still display their airline's listings first, according to Rush. Also, he says, travel agents tend to choose the CRS that is based closest to them. So a California travel agency is more likely to use Apollo because it is owned by San Francisco-based United Airlines. N E X T+P A G E+| More options, more savings