SAN FRANCISCO -- A leading computer magazine has confirmed what
travel agents have suspected for some time about Web-based travel
services: "Don't fire your agent just yet."
PC Magazine surveyed the leading Web travel sites for business
and leisure travel and found only one site offered "the kind of
features that suit the needs of frequent business travelers."
Not one Web service was recommended for vacation travel.
"The sites are useful and interesting, but a traditional travel
agent handles most arrangements more efficiently," the magazine
said.
"We were disappointed in the vacation services offered. Many
contained the same prepackaged content licensed from Worldview
Systems, and no site could give us what we truly wanted: reliable
price quotes for vacations that could be purchased on-line."
The study's sobering results were constructed from evaluating
the most popular on-line services. What follows, in alphabetical
order, are the highlights:
* American Express [www.americanexpress.com/travel] is "good for
the traveler without a lot of special needs." But it doesn't offer
a lot of "extras," such as booking more than five legs of a
business trip. On the upside, all reservations are sent through
American Express Travel Related Services, which gives customers
more options for buying tickets, such as picking them up at an
American Express agency or ordering them on-line and having them
sent overnight at no charge. For leisure travelers, American
Express guarantees the price of its vacation specials, offered by a
wide range of suppliers. But prices are fixed, and any changes to
the packages incur substantial penalties. Also, some of the
last-minute specials were found to be out of date, the magazine
said. This site uses Internet Travel Network's booking engine.
* Atevo Travel [www.atevo.com] "does a better job with helping
its customers interact to share information about their travel
experiences" than it does making travel arrangements. The booking
engine is provided by ITN, offering air fares, availability and
reservations. Customers also can select seats in real time when
they book a ticket. Still, package deals require customers to fill
out an on-line form to have an Atevo agent call back.
* Biztravel.com [www.bizravel.com], geared to frequent
travelers, was said to offer the best of the on-line travel
agencies. "You won't find a fare tracker here, and vacationers
looking for packages, promotions, side trips and the like won't
find them, but anyone who travels often will find that
Biztravel.com's extensive and flexible service makes it the best of
the on-line travel agencies." Among the pluses: Profiling "as
complete as those that travel agents request," and customers can
enter as many frequent traveler program numbers as they want. The
service also takes corporate discount numbers, a service matched
only by one other on-line service, Flifo. Corporate travel managers
might want to keep an eye on one of the site's features, however:
The mileage optimization allows travelers to specify goals for each
program to which they belong. The service uses this data to suggest
intineraries that will help customers meet these goals.
* Excite Travel by City Net [www.city.net] offers a package of
resources that are "more compelling" than those offered on most
ITN-backed sites, which tend to use the Worldview Systems package.
"This is an excellent information resource for both business and
pleasure travelers but not as effective for booking travel." The
site's reservations are provided by Preview Travel (see below),
offering much of the same features.
* Flifo [www.flifo.com] offers a popular Fare Beater tool that
finds the lowest rates available when given your personal
preferences. Ticketing services are deemed "especially convenient,"
with electronic ticket processing or tickets by mail with free
delivery, even if it requires express mail. The service is a "good
place to learn about where you're going and to set up a
well-organized, detailed itinerary."
* Internet Travel Network [www.itn.net] is applauded for
performing "most of the basics for a business traveler in a very
clean atmosphere" and for allowing customers to sign up with a
local travel agency, a feature that garnered the service support
from the trade. "Ideal for the business traveler, this service
provides a location to pick up travel documents in a hurry and a
place to call for changes en route. It also provides a safety net
for any on-line snafus," the magazine said. The site's drawbacks
include storing only four frequent flyer numbers and no car or
hotel program numbers.
* Expedia.com [www.expedia.com] lets you book air, car and hotel
"without much difficulty," but continued use of the site revealed
design flaws and "thinner" services than might be expected from the
slick appearance. The site was praised for its "unparalleled" Hotel
Pinpointer, which allows customers to view a hotel's location on a
map instantly, but Expedia.com's fare-tracking service is "the most
Spartan of any site."
* Outtahere [www.outtahere.com] was found sorely wanting by the
magazine. "Spend some time at this site and you'll be out of there
all right, probably to a better site." The only thing going for
Outtahere might be its name, judging from this evaluation. "We were
disappointed with Outtahere's inability to handle the basics of
Internet customer service. You don't get e-mail confirming
reservations, and the confirmations were sorely missed when the
site's Previous Reservations section could retrieve only one of the
several reservations we had made." Nor is Outtahere the best place
to look for leisure package deals. "Unfortunately, with its poor
interface and haphazard memory, it is not the place to book one,
either," the magazine said.
* Preview Travel [www.previewtravel.com], deemed "above
average," was praised for its "extensive collection of vacation
packages and support for multiple profiling." While lauded for
layout and design, Preview "does not possess one compelling feature
to recommend it over any other site."
* TheTrip.com [www.thetrip.com] is taken to task for lacking
some of the "extras," such as interactive bulletin boards or
vacation package deals, that would "make it ideal for leisure
travelers." As a service for the unmanaged business traveler,
however, TheTrip.com can be excused for some of the services that
are found missing, such as special vacation packages or promotional
discounts.
* Travelocity [www.travelocity.com] is recognized for
"user-friendly design, superb customer support and excellent knack
for finding low fares." But the Sabre-backed service is knocked for
"too often showing its roots as a travel agent reservations
system," with cryptic jargon used to describe hotel and flights.
Other drawbacks: The service's fare-monitoring feature is "too
inflexible."