Does the Internet really deliver the lowest airfares? By Ben Mutzabaugh, USATODAY.com The answer is a resounding 'yes,' according to this week's Fare Compare. We= =20 looked at fares on 20 of the nation's busiest routes, comparing "published"= =20 fares to prices for tickets available on the Web. On average, the Internet= =20 fares were 33% less than the published fares =97 though many of them= required=20 a Saturday night stay. Published fares are the prices offered to travel=20 agents, corporate travel managers and consumers by the airlines through=20 computerized reservations systems. When you call an airline or most travel= =20 agents, they quote a "published airfare." A Web fare is any airfare offered= =20 through the Internet, whether from an airline's Web site or through an=20 online travel agency such as Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz. We found the=20 Web fares beat the published fares on 17 of the 20 routes we sampled. The=20 lowest fares were identical on two routes, while the difference was just $1= =20 on another. The Web fares we looked at averaged $60 less than their=20 published fare counterparts. In one case, the published fare was nearly=20 four times as much as the best available Web fare. to see a chart comparison http://www.usatoday.com/travel/deals/compare/compare.htm *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: www.pichemas.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************