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 Road Warrior By Jenn Shreve There really are advantages to making your travel plans on the Web (01/30/98) 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) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Road warrior archives		____R O A D_W A R R I O R _________i got it online, part 2 ____COMPARING THE PROS AND CONS OF ____FOUR INTERNET TRAVEL SERVICES. BY JENN SHREVE | Once you decide to go online for your travel plans, things get more complicated. Mainly, which site do you choose? This depends on myriad factors: Are you planning for a vacation or is it business travel? Are you booking air only or the whole shebang? Do you want a package or do you want to piece your trip together yourself? There are subtle differences to contend with as well. Do you prefer fare mail or fare trackers? Are the site's live travel agents onsite or contracted out? Which CRS do they use and does it matter? Clearly, the best way to choose an online travel agent is simply to visit the various sites and see which work best for you. But to help you choose, here are some not-so-obvious differences I've found among the four leading sites -- Preview Travel, Travelocity, ITN and Expedia. It's not the size of your content, it's how you use it. Most online travel agents offer a plethora of content supporting their booking services. Every site features the usual guidebook fare -- where to go, health warnings, hotel listings, attractions and so on -- plus most offer a weather service, driving directions, currency converters and discussion areas. But none of the sites' content is truly integrated with their booking engines. Say you're reading about a nice hotel in Spain in Expedia. If you want to reserve a room in this hotel, you'll have to go to the site's hotel reservations service and search for it there. This can be a long and frustrating experience. The same goes for Travelocity and ITN, which, along with Expedia, provide the most detailed and useful content -- specific listings of places to stay, seasonal events and so on. Preview Travel is the only site in which content is married to the booking system. From an article on a vacation destination, for example, you can price a vacation specific to that story. However, the content is limited in scope and the booking options follow suit. Preview Travel is launching a partnership with Fodor's Gold Guide early in 1998, which should improve its content significantly. Whether the Fodor content will be directly connected to the booking engine hasn't been determined. Which is better: fare mail or fare trackers? I love fare mail. When it arrives in my in box it allows me to take a moment from my hectic day to sigh and dream of a quick trip to Mexico or a visit to friends in New York for unbelievably low prices. And it takes no effort on my part. I only have to choose my departure airport and desired destination once. Then the site's computers scan away on my behalf, informing me regularly of their findings. What could be more simple? It's like getting a fax from your travel agent every time a low price pops up for the vacation she just knows you've been saving for. The problem with fare mail is that you rarely if ever actually wind up with the prices listed. Expedia -- my favorite because it's once a week, so it doesn't clutter my in box -- sends a weekly round-up of the sites I've signed up for. But I've never been able to match the prices they've offered. Part of the reason for this is the fact that exact itineraries are not provided with the mail (more on this below). But e-mailing exact prices would be difficult, since prices are constantly changing. Hence the real problem with fare mail: The prices are different by the time you get the e-mail. (ITN includes the flight's itinerary in its low-fare listings, but even so, the prices can change.) Fare mail is an excellent way to get a general feel for what prices are out there. But if you're serious about getting a ticket, and want a good deal, live fare finders, which list the lowest fares available at the exact time you're searching, are your best bet. All the major online agents offer one of these. In addition, ITN has a unique feature that enables you to search for low prices all day with its Java low-fare ticker. "Users click on a link, and a small Netscape window opens up and starts scrolling the lowest fares either from the user's home airport or just randomly cross-country," explains Joe Witherspoon of ITN. "After they've left the site, they can still monitor the fares as they change throughout the day. And if they see a fare they like to that destination, they can click on it and actually book it." When putting together your itinerary, ITN also provides alternative routes and times if it comes up with a lower fare approximately matching your travel plans. N E X T+P A G E+| How easy is all this?