=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2004/05= /09/TRGUU6FRR31.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, May 9, 2004 (SF Chronicle) New Web sites find cheap airline seats Arthur Frommer So you've learned how to use Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, and you fe= el you've mastered the art of getting the best rates for flights, cruises and hotels. Wrong. The world of travel Web sites is constantly in flux, and newcomers are emerging every few months or so to challenge the established leaders. As Avis used to say, being No. 2 means the company has to "try harder" (that's the claim, anyway). Frequently, in my experience, you get better airfares, cabin and room rates by using booking engines of which most travelers are unaware. Currently, I'm impressed with three relatively new sites: -- 1800cheapseats.com: It's been around since 1987, but mainly as a telephone operation that urged its users to call for the cheapest prices on air travel. Only last August did it evolve into a full-scale Internet service as well, and the availability of both live reservationists and Internet technology creates considerable advantages for the public, according to its president, Susan Mesa. By phoning 1-800-CheapSeats, she says, users get the benefit of skilled intervention on their behalf by telephone personnel who are available almost around the clock, seven days a week, from three large call centers in Nevada, North Carolina and California. Equally important, the reservationists are able to tap not only a database of Internet airfares, but also the occasionally lower fares available on the GDS (Global Distribution) systems operated for travel agents by the airlines. Moreover, 1800CheapSeats' personnel have simultaneous access to the airfares of the cut-rate airlines (like Southwest and JetBlue) that sometimes do not appear on the well-known Internet booking services. All in all, 1800cheapseats.com adopts a cocky stance and claims that the prices of its airfares, cruises and hotel rooms are second to none. You might try it out, either via your computer (www.1800cheapseats.com) or over the phone. -- CheapFlights.com: It's a giant British-run international operation th= at only recently created a U.S. presence for people seeking flights within the United States (it also books hotels). It not only surveys the fares made available by the airlines (both the traditional carriers and the cut-rate upstarts), but those offered by the major "consolidators" (discounters) of airfares, which sometimes buy fares in bulk at reduced prices and resell to the public. Its main menu is radically different from those of Expedia and Travelocity. Instead of showing the fare for a specific date of departure and return, Cheapflights.com shows you the pattern of fares on various airlines for a continuous period -- like May 1 to Aug. 30. If you see something you like and click on that pattern, the booking engine then displays the toll-free phone number to call or the Web site to access for booking the fare. Cheapflights.com itself is not involved in the purchase transaction (and= I like that). On several recent occasions, Cheapflights.com found what seemed to be better fares or rates than those disclosed on other well-known travel Web sites. -- Applefares.com: It's another British operation, this time devoted to ascertaining the fares and available seats of those many new cut-rate airlines that now fly from city to city in Europe -- a major development. On standard airfare-booking engines, you will rarely be offered the seats and prices of such major European cost-cutters as Easyjet, German-Wings, Sky Europe, Virgin Express, Volare and others. But while Applefares.com doesn't deal with all the 30-some-odd cheap carriers crisscrossing the skies of Europe, it does handle a dozen of them, revealing the spectacularly low rates that are frequently offered for travel within Europe. For a complete list of all the low-cost airlines operating around the world, click on www.lowcostairlines.org. But for availability on the days and routes you wish to fly, try www.applefares.com. I'm not suggesting that all the new airfare-booking engines are to be preferred to the larger, established ones. Some are relatively useless, while one (not the three sites I mentioned above) charges an unconscionable $30 per person booking fee . But if you're serious about obtaining all the available options for your trip, you'll go to many more sites than just the three giants. -----------------------------------------= ----------------------------- Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle