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Biztravel.com
As
its name suggests, this travel site is focused squarely
on business travelers and is full of features they'll
appreciate, such as an automated upgrade system to
help travelers fly first-class more often, flight-status
updates that can be sent to pagers, exclusive travel
deals, and frequent-flier mileage tracking. The site
has also recently announced live online customer service
via instant messaging and Fare Guard, a system that
searches for the lowest fare right up until the date
of departure.
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Expedia.com
Expedia.com, which had an enormously successful IPO
in November, has added features throughout 1999 to
improve its service, including a Family Travel section,
a Fare Compare feature that tells you what other people
are currently paying for the flights you want, seat
pinpointers to help you get the perfect seat, a place
to save your previous search queries, vacation and
cruise wizards, and express service for frequent users.
You can turn to its 250-person customer-support staff
if you have a question, so chances are you'll have
great success at this excellent site.
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Lonely
Planet
How
refreshing: a travel site that actually gives you
insider insight into your destinations. The Lonely
Planet series of guidebooks has an outstanding reputation,
and much of that content is here, in searchable form.
Don't miss the worldwide travel news updates, and
feel free to post your travel questions on The Thorn
Tree. It's obvious that the people who visit this
site are adventurous travelers; you'll find all kinds
of great travel tips.
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Travelocity.com
Travelocity.com
has always had a slight technological advantage over
its competitors: It's owned by the Sabre Group, which
maintains the largest worldwide reservation system.
That underpinning makes it easy for the site to offer
features such as one-click access to the best current
fares from your hometown to major cities and automatic
searches for the three lowest-priced itineraries for
your travel needs. You can also sign up for e-mail
fare bulletins and a service that will send important
flight information to your pager. In October, the
site merged with Preview Travel, making it the largest
travel site around, with access to 95 percent of all
airline seats sold and with 42,000 hotels, 50 car
rental companies, and 70,000 vacation packages in
its database.
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WebFlyer
Frequent
fliers love their miles, and they love to keep track
of them. Though this site isn't particularly interactive
(you will find discussion boards), it's an outstanding,
up-to-date repository of everything you need to know
about every frequent-flier program in the world. You'll
also find the contents of InsideFlyer magazine and
the opportunity to apply for a free frequent-flier
"makeover," where you'll get advice about
how to maximize your accounts.
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