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Focused squarely on business travelers, this site maintains the travel profiles of its clients and can recommend itineraries according to stated preferences, such as lowest fare, favored airline, or upgrade availability. Wireless pager alerts inform you of flight status one hour before departure. Travel deals, frequent-flier mileage-tracking, and 24-hour customer service, by phone or instant messaging, are also useful features. Articles, maps, city and weather information, and a currency converter round out the site. One handy guarantee -- they give you cash if your flight is more than 30 minutes late or if your baggage is delayed.
Expedia.com's no-nonsense design means you simply type in the dates and times you wish to fly and it finds flights for you. Use the PriceMatcher reverse-auction feature to find hotels and flights at the prices you want to pay, while seat pin-pointers help you get that aisle seat. Also get news, advice, cruise reviews, maps, and other destination and activity information; save your previous search queries, and utilize the express service if you're a frequent user. Round-the-clock customer-support staffers are available by telephone or email.
For years, adventure travelers have been using Lonely Planet guidebooks to navigate the globe. Now, this insightful Web site gives you inside information about your destinations. Much of the printed content is here in a searchable format. The travel news updates will keep you aware of any hip events or areas where you should be wary of visiting. You can even post your queries on he Thorn Tree. The site has created a community to support that most indispensable travel tool that a guidebook can never capture-up-to-the-minute and word-of-mouth advice from other travelers.
Owned by the Sabre Group, which maintains the largest worldwide reservation system, this megasite has always had some advantages over its competitors, such as one-click access to the best current fares and automatic searches for your nine lowest-priced itineraries. With access to 95 percent of all airline seats, 42,000 hotels, and 50 car-rental companies, this one-stop travel site can help you make plane, hotel, and car reservations in a flash. Research the best deals on vacation packages, or search the database for other travel information, such as driving directions, maps, and weather. You can also receive flight information via pager, visit the message boards, and read or write a review of different destinations.
