Archive-name: travel/air/online-info
Last-modified: 2008/08/24
Changes from last week are indicated by the usual marks in the right margin.

Please look through this entire document, particularly the PLEASE NOTE at the
end, before e-mailing me a question or comment, since most of the questions I
get are already answered in it.

* What's in this document?

There's an enormous amount of information available on the Web about airlines
and aviation. This FAQ concentrates on two things: schedules, fares,
reservations, and tickets for commercial airlines, and on-line travel agents.
We list both airline-sponsored and independent information.

The first parts of this FAQ discuss on-line sources of airline schedules and
fares, of which there are several general-purpose services.

After that it lists airlines that have any of online schedules, fares,
reservations, ticket sales, and flight status.

Next comes a listing of on-line specials, sources of special fares and other
deals available over the net. Many airlines have short-notice specials which
are worth checking out.

The rest of the FAQ lists travel agents that offer service over the net and
have indicated that they'd like to be listed. I am not a travel agent (I
consult and write computer books which you can find out about in my web site
at http://www.johnlevine.com, (Who's computer is this?) and the agent listings are provided free to any
agent that asks and sends in a short description of what he or she offers.

* Where is this FAQ available?

It's on the Web at http://airinfo.travel (Who's computer is this?) or http://airinfo.aero. (Who's computer is this?) There are,
unfortunately, a certain number of out of date copies of this site floating
around the net; the only one that's up to date is the one at
http://airinfo.travel (Who's computer is this?) or http://airinfo.aero. (Who's computer is this?)

You can also get it by e-mail every Sunday. To get on the mailing list, send a
message to majordomo@lists.iecc.com containing the line "subscribe airline".
(Don't type the quotes, nor any other punctuation.)

* How do on-line reservations work?

Four giant airline computer systems in the United States handle nearly all the
airline reservations in the country. (They're known as CRSs, for computer
reservations systems, or more often now GDS for global distribution systems.)
Although each airline has a ``home'' CRS, the systems are all interlinked so
that you can, with few exceptions, buy tickets for any airline from any CRS.
The dominant systems in the U.S. are Sabre (home to American and US Airways),
Galileo (home to United), Worldspan (home to Delta, Northwest), and Amadeus
(Continental and many European lines.) The company that owned Galileo and
Orbitz recently bought Worldspan, so the two GDS will presumably be merged.
Many of the low-price start-up airlines don't participate in any of these
systems but have their own Web sites where you can check flights and buy
tickets. Southwest, the largest and oldest of the low-price airlines, doesn't
participate, either. Southwest's web site gets car and hotel info from
Galileo, but the info seems not to flow the other way. Orbitz, one of the big
three online travel agencies, runs its own system which is "direct connect"
linked directly to many of the airlines.

In theory, all the systems show the same data; in practice, however, they get
a little out of sync with each other. If you're looking for seats on a
sold-out flight, an airline's home system is most likely to have that last,
elusive seat. If you're looking for the lowest fare to somewhere, check all
four systems because a fare that's marked as sold out on one system often
mysteriously reappears on another system. Some airlines have rules about
flight segments that are not supposed to be sold together even though they're
all available, and at least once I got a cheap US Airways ticket on Expedia,
which didn't know about all the US Airways rules even though I couldn't get it
on their own site or Travelocity which did know about them. On the other hand,
many airlines have available some special deals that are only on their own Web
sites and maybe a few of the online agencies. Confused? You should be. We are.

The confusion is even worse if you want to fly internationally. Official fares
to most countries are set via a treaty organization called the IATA, so most
computer systems list only IATA fares for international flights. It's easy to
find entirely legal ``consolidator'' tickets sold for considerably less than
the official price, however, so an online or offline agent is extremely useful
for getting the best price. The airlines also can have some impressive online
offers on their web sites.

Here's our distilled wisdom about buying tickets online:

* Check the online systems to see what flights are available and for an idea
of the price ranges. Check more than one CRS. For tickets within the U.S. and
Canada, the prices in the CRS are for the most part the real prices that
people are paying. See the Big Online Agencies later in this FAQ for some good
places to start.
* After you have found a likely airline, check that airline's site to see
whether it has any special Web-only deals. If a low-fare airline has the
route, be sure to check that one too, since most low-fare airlines don't
appear in CRS listings.
* If your schedule is flexible, check ticket bidding sites including Hotwire
(http://www.hotwire.com (Who's computer is this?) ) and Priceline (http://www.priceline.com (Who's computer is this?) ) and ticket
auctions such as SkyAuction (http://www.skyauction.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ).
* You can also talk to travel agents, particularly if it's a route where you
aren't eligible for the lowest CRS fares, but remember that agents get no
commission on fares visible on the CRS, so you can expect an agent to charge
you for ticking them.
* For international tickets, do all the steps above in this list, and then
check both online and with your agent for consolidator tickets. This is
particularly important if you don't qualify for the lowest published fare. See
Edward Hasbrouck's Consolidators and Bucket Shops FAQ
(http://hasbrouck.org/faq (Who's computer is this?) ) for much more detailed information on consolidator
tickets.

* July 2008 industry update

With skyrocketing fuel prices, the U.S. airline industry is again in dreadful
shape, with Aloha, ATA, Skybus, Eos, Silverjet, and Maxjet having shut down
unexpectedly in recent months. Midwest is on death watch, French all-business
carrier l'Avion is being absorbed into British Airways' Openskies subsidiary,
Frontier is bankrupt but still flying, and the remaining airlines are hanging
on with to a combination of somewhat higher fares and very full planes.

Airlines have been flying smaller planes, in particular under-100 seat
regional jets, so although the number of flights is about what it was, there
aren't as many seats available, and the increased flights means dreadful
delays anytime there's the least weather or mechanical glitch. But those small
jets burn a whole lot of fuel per passenger, so this fall you'll be seeing a
lot fewer of them, with flights either combined to provide enough passengers
for a larger jet, or just plain cancelled.

Airlines are scrambling for revenue anywhere they can find it. Fuel surcharges
are now common across the industry, and can be several hundred dollars on
overseas flights. Most lines now only let you check one bag for free, some
charge for all checked bags, many now charge for picking your own seat, and
charge more if you pick a decent seat by an exit row or bulkhead. (The kindest
way to think of it is that the prices have increased, but you get a discount
if you're willing to fly with no checked bag, sit in a lousy seat, and bring
your own lunch.) With the exception of Continental, nobody includes meals on
domestic flights any more, although I have to say that the $5 salads and
sandwiches are often a lot better than the former free gray-green glop.

The airlines that aren't bankrupt have shrunk themselves and raised fares but
after a brief profitable period are all deeply back in the red, due to fuel
prices. Beyond the ones that have shut down, Mesa Air is on death watch, due
to the end of its commuter agreement with Delta and losses at its go!
subsidiary in Hawaii, and Midwest will shut down if they don't get more
investors soon.

A major effect of all of the bankruptcies and downsizing is that airlines are
much more thinly staffed than they used to be. That means that problems tend
to have worse effects and last longer than they used to be. Northwest and
Delta finally agreed to tie the knot, although the merger may not survive the
gamut of hostile unions at Northwest and hostile politicians in Washington.

United, chronically left at the altar, was talking to Continental, who then
publicly stated that they're not interested in a merger, but agreed to
code-share and for CO to join Star Alliance, replacing what CO has now with
Northwest and Delta.

US Airways slogged through its second bankruptcy, and merged with America
West, with the combined company to be called US Airways but run by the
management of profitable America West, which hasn't been bankrupt for a couple
of years. Their operations still aren't entirely integrated. The staffs of the
two airlines never liked each other, causing continuing labor problems. They
might yet merge with United, although in their current shape they're not a
terribly attractive merger partner.

Hawaiian and and Aloha emerged from bankruptcy last year. Hawaiian is hanging
on, but Aloha died in March.

ATA unexpectedly shut down on April 2, citing a lost military contract. Since
they had a deal with Southwest to provide codeshare service between Midway and
places Southwest doesn't go, this also affected some Southwest passengers.

Air Canada emerged from bankruptcy last year in OK but not great shape, and
has been modestly profitable, making it look like a survivor, particularly
since low-cost competitor JetsGo turned out to be so low cost that it ran out
of cash and died, Canjet retreated back to charters, and surviving low cost
competitor Westjet isn't competing very hard, although they recently announced
a modest alliance with Southwest.

Since the UK bomb plot a few years ago, the rules about what you can take with
you on the plane rather than check, particularly what amounts of what kind of
liquid, and what electronic equipment, have been changing unpredictably from
day to day and place to place, despite the fact that the authorities have
known for at least a decade that bad guys might try to use liquid bombs
detonated by consumer electronic equipment.

Passengers are subject to much more extensive screening than in the past,
including screening of checked baggage at check-in time, and, according to
news reports pat downs that approach groping. Airlines recommend arriving at
least an hour earlier than before. In my experience the extra delay is rarely
more than 15 minutes, even with the extra baggage screening, although I
usually fly out of smaller airports, not big hubs where you can get the killer
two hour lines. The TSA has taken over screening at most airports but the
inconsistency in procedures from one airport to another, particularly with
respect to your shoes, is worse than ever. I've gone through the metal
detector, it beeped, I went back and took my shoes off, walked through again,
it beeped again, and they didn't notice (so neither did I, since I'm pretty
sure I have no plans to blow up any planes.) A variety of extra cost "trusted
traveller" may allow people to get through the screening faster, or may just
involve waiting in a different line. The TSA makes no promises. They have a
web site with estimated wait times (http://waittime.tsa.dhs.gov (Who's computer is this?) ) based on
averages in previous months, not real time numbers.

Other changes include: some airports have stopped curb-side baggage check,
anything vaguely resembling a knife or lighter may or may not be confiscated
(although lighters suddenly stopped being dangerous the first week in August),
you're sometimes only allowed one carry-on plus a purse, briefcase, diaper bag
or the like, non-passengers aren't allowed past security without a gate pass
from an airline, all passengers must have a document that looks like a
boarding pass at most airports to get past security, you may have to put your
toothpaste and shampoo in a baggie that may have to be a one quart size, some
parking areas close to terminals are closed. But check-in clerks no longer ask
you whether you packed your own suitcase.


* Wow, there's a lot of places to look for plane tickets

The original version of this FAQ described only one online source of plane
reservations (the late, lamented Easy Sabre) because that's all there was. Now
there are approximately fifteen gazillion web sites selling plane tickets. But
setting up a system to sell tickets is a lot of work, so in reality most of
those web sites funnel into a much smaller number of underlying systems. This
means that you aren't likely to find a lot more from visiting a hundred sites
than from visiting four or five. Good sites to start at are ITA Software
(http://www.itasoftware.com (Who's computer is this?) ), which uses its own search engine but doesn't
sell tickets, and a couple of the comparison sites such as Kayak
(http://www.kayak.com (Who's computer is this?) ). For more detailed suggestions, see How do on-line
reservations workearlier in this FAQ.

Airlines' own web sites are a notable exception. Even though they are all
backed by one of the standard search systems (increasingly a customized
version of Orbitz), they each provide access to their own flights without any
booking fee. No matter where you find a ticket, it's worth checking the
airline's own site to see if it's a few dollars less there. Buying on the
airline's own site frequently also makes it easier to pick seats or change
tickets later.

Most sites are intended for relatively casual travellers, not road warriors
who need to know the exact fare class of a ticket, so they can optimize
frequent flyer miles and upgrades. For access to detailed fare and class
availability information, see Expert Flyer, described later. It costs money,
but if you care about that kind of stuff, it's well worth it.

* The big online agencies

For domestic US tickets and simple international tickets (e.g., a round trip
from the US to somewhere else, bought at least a month ahead) the big three
are as good a place to start as any.

Travelocity: Travelocity (http://www.travelocity.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is an online agent owned
by Sabre. Tickets can be issued as e-tickets or, at extra cost, by mail. There
is also a great deal of travel destination information of variable usefulness.
Unlike most other web-based systems, it sometimes lets you hold a reservation
without buying it. Also handles hotels and rental cars. A nice fare watcher
feature lets you list a few routes you're interested in, and it sends you
e-mail when an interesting fare becomes available. They have a Vacation Deals
page that often has private fares, two-for-one deals, and the like. Their
flexible search option provides a fare calendar, table of what fares are
available on what dates, that's better than any other site I know.
Unfortunately, just because a fare is available on a date doesn't mean that
any actual seats are available at that fare, so a certain number of the fares
are cruel jokes, great bargains if only the airline would sell you a seat at
that fare which they won't.

Some fares are marked "good buy" which means that they're only available on
Travelocity. But that doesn't mean that they're any cheaper than other fares.
All fares now include a $5/ticket service fee.

Travelocity includes a "last minute deals" feature which is a rebranded
version of Site59 (http://www.site59.com (Who's computer is this?) ), which Travelocity owns.

Expedia: Expedia (http://www.expedia.com (Who's computer is this?) ) was Microsoft's flashy entrant into
the web travel biz. In July 2001 they sold a controlling interest to USA
Networks, owner of Home Shopping Network and other great cultural monuments.
In August 2003, the two companies were merged under the extremely trendy name
of IAC/InterActive Corp, along with hotels.com, Match.com and LendingTree. In
2005 they admitted that synergy is just a buzzword and spun it off as a
separate company. It still has that Microsoft feel. The site is a bit noisy,
but it's reasonably easy to negotiate and to find schedules and fares. You
have to provide a credit card number to make a reservation, even if you don't
want to buy immediately. Early on, when I tried to reserve, it said it the
credit card link was down, no reservations possible, call a number in Florida
if it's urgent. Yeah, right. (At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1.) It seems to
work better now. There's also lots of promos and tie-ins, with Expedia-only
special fares. You can sign up for weekly e-mail about best fares on routes
you select.

Orbitz: Orbitz (http://www.orbitz.com (Who's computer is this?) ), was intended to be the "killer"
airline ticket web site. Founded by United, Northwest, Continental, Delta, and
American, it was sold in October 2004 to Cendant, a large travel company that
owns Avis rent-a-car and Ramada Inns and dozens of other familiar chains, then
in July 2007 was spun off as a standalone company along with some smaller
travel companies that Cendant bought along the way. At least 30 airlines
including the founders are Orbitz charter affiliates, which means they give
all of their web fares to Orbitz. It has a very nice lowest fare search
engine. You can tell it to add alternate airport within 70 miles, and it gives
you the possible routings, cheapest first. It now lets you give a range of
dates, or say that you want to take a weekend trip in a particular month, and
it gives you a grid showing the lowest available fare for each combination of
departure and return dates. They promise unbiased fare and schedule listings,
and have agreements with affiliate airlines to include all publicly available
fares (a term that is harder to define than it looks) such as web specials.
Their search engine does a more thorough job than others (it runs on racks of
cheap PCs rather than on expensive mainframe computers) so it'll often find
fares and connections that are entirely valid but not shown on other systems.
For domestic US tickets on the airlines they include, they're hard to beat,
although like other online agencies, they don't include Southwest. For
international tickets, particularly on anything more complex than a
round-trip, they can be very hit and miss. Try building your trip one leg at a
time and watch the price zoom up and down. They also have some spiffy customer
service, e.g., they can call you or send a text message to your mobile phone
or PDA a few hours before flight time to tell you your gate and whether there
are delays.

Opodo: Opodo (http://www.opodo.co.uk (Who's computer is this?) ) is owned by nine European airlines and
the Amadeus GDS. Its coverage of the European majors is good, but keep in mind
that on many European routes you can find something cheaper on a low-cost
airline that doesn't participate with Amadeus. (See Fare Searches below to
find services link to the airlines that Opodo doesn't.) It's intended for
European audiences although anyone can use it, so tickets are priced in pounds
or euros.

Opodo's user registration is, ah, challenging; no matter what I do, it insists
I have entered an unknown user or password or the e-mail address for password
recovery doesn't match the user name, even though I copied them from
confirmation messages that Opodo just sent. So buy tickets without
registering.

Apollo systems:

Internet Travel Network (http://www.itn.net (Who's computer is this?) ) is now part of American Express.
It's a WWW-based flight booking system. You make reservations, using Apollo,
which are then ticketed by American Express, unless you entered via another
agency's web site. Several other sites on the net including several airlines
have ``private label'' connections to ITN, but it's the same system, usually
just with slightly different screen backgrounds and titles. The base ITN
system uses data from Apollo, but apparently some of the private label
versions use other CRS.

Worldspan (http://www.worldspan.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is another large international CRS. They
provide a Web availability and pricing system, which underlies the web sites
of participating agents as well as the Delta and Northwest web sites, only
available via customer sites, not on their own site. It's the system that
underlies Expedia and Orbitz (described above). Galileo's owner Travelport is
in the process of buying Worldspan and will presumably merge the two.

Cheap Tickets (http://www.cheaptickets.com (Who's computer is this?) ) originally sold mostly cheap
tickets to Hawaii, but is now a general purpose online agent. I gather that
unlike most other web sites, the live agents at their 800 number have access
to fares not on the web site and often not available through other sites.
Owned by Cendant, being spun off in the same travel company as Orbitz,
although the sites remain separate.

Amadeus:

AmadeusLink (http://www.amadeus.net/ (Who's computer is this?) ), was started in 1987 by four European
airlines and in 1995 absorbed System One which started a long time ago as
Eastern Airlines' reservation system. They offer extensive schedule and
availability info, along with rental car, hotel, and destination info. For
bookings, you need to use a subscribing travel agency, such as Opodo, or a
site built on their AmadeusLink system. The AmadeusLink booking systems all
link into the same site, so other than some of the graphics, the function they
provide is identical.

* Meta-searches

A meta-search looks at lots of other sites and gives you a combined result
that is supposed to have the lowest fare. All of these work, but in each case
it appears that they only search sites that will pay them a commission. The
commission doesn't affect your fare, but it does mean that there are other
sites that might have lower fares that they don't search. In particular,
you'll never find low-price airlines like Southwest and Ryanair.

Mobissimo (http://www.mobissimo.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a meta-search that searches lots of
other web sites for a pair of cities and dates and shows you what fares it
found.

Kayak (http://www.kayak.com (Who's computer is this?) ) and Sidestep are meta-searches, systems that
search multiple airline web sites to make a combined listing with links you
can click through to the various sites to buy. They work well, but as with all
combo sites, there are usually interesting sites they don't search so you
still have to look for yourself. They were originally separate competing sites
but the companies merged.

Pricegrabber (http://www.pricegrabber.com/home_travel.php (Who's computer is this?) ) offers price
comparisons of everything from computer parts to hotels, now including plane
tickets. It's pretty slick, but the list of places they search seems limited.

Yahoo's Farechase (http://farechase.yahoo.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is yet another meta-search. It
has the slick interface you'd expect from Yahoo, results similar to but
perhaps not quite as complete as Kayak.

Fare compare (http://www.farecompare.com (Who's computer is this?) ) isn't really a meta-search; it takes
fare information directly from the airlines to let you find the cheapest dates
on routes of interest.

Yapta (http://www.yapta.com (Who's computer is this?) ) checks airline web sites to see if the fare for
trips of interest has dropped since the last time you checked. Much of the
functionality is bundled into a very intrusive browser plugin that I haven't
tried.

* Other general sites

OneTravel (http://www.onetravel.com (Who's computer is this?) ) offers booking and ticketing. They used
to have a "fare beater" feature with negotiated and "white label" fares, but
it's gone. Too bad. It's a competent but ordinary online agent now. Cheapseats
(http://www.cheapseats.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is another portal into the same system.

Travelweb (http://www.travelweb.com (Who's computer is this?) ), also known as Lowestfare
(http://www.lowestfare.com (Who's computer is this?) ), is a subsidiary of Priceline. It offers the usual
array of tickets, with lots of links to Priceline.

* Fare searches and comparisons

ITA Software (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch (Who's computer is this?) ) builds the search
engine used by Orbitz and an increasing number of airline sites, and you can
use a copy of the latest version of their search system. No booking, you have
to take what you find and book elsewhere. It's by far my favorite tool to
explore what's available when, keeping in mind that it can't see low fare
airlines not in the GDS that provide its data.

Qixo (http://www.qixo.com (Who's computer is this?) ) searches two dozen airline sites and returns a
combined list of the lowest fares found for route. If you book through them,
there's a $20 booking fee, but of course once you know the airline and times,
there's nothing keeping you from booking up the same flights on another site.

Cheap Flights USA (http://www.CheapFlights.com (Who's computer is this?) ) and Cheap Flights UK
(http://www.CheapFlights.co.uk (Who's computer is this?) ) offers a nice search engine for low cost
tickets from the US and UK, many of which don't appear in the major search
engines. Not a travel agency, they link to other agents and airlines where
they presumably collect a referral fee (which is fine, it doesn't affect the
price of the ticket.)

Foundem (http://www.foundem.com/search/flightsUK.jsp (Who's computer is this?) ) searches multiple sites
in the UK. Supposed to include both regular agent sites and low-fare airlines,
but it missed a lot of the low-fare ones when I looked.

Sky Scanner (http://www.skyscanner.net (Who's computer is this?) ) offers an excellent search engine for
cheap flights within the UK and Europe. Don't miss their month views with
little bar charts of daily fares.

Flight Atlas (http://www.flightatlas.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) offers cute animated maps showing
what routes are available among European airports, with links to the airlines
serving them. (To me it looks like of like a game of Battleship.)

SimplyQuick (http://travel.simplyquick.com/discount-airfares/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is an
independent guide to who's cheapest online for discount airfares, based on a
large survey of the top 8 online booking services, and providing a search
tailored city by city (US only). They also rate online travel agents and
travel service web sites. They're in New Zealand, but most of the info is for
US travellers.

Cheapo (http://www.flycheapo.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has comprehensive info on European discount
airlines including a map that shows where they all go, and frequent blog style
news items on new and changed service.

* Discounted international tickets

AirTreks (http://www.airtreks.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has a spiffy web site that helps construct
and price multi-stop and round-the-world international travel. They're a
travel agency, the site estimates the price, exact prices and tickets come
from live agents at the agency. (That's what you want, no computer can
navigate the swamp of international routes and fares very well.)

Farepoint (http://www.farepoint.co.uk/ (Who's computer is this?) ) provides a large database of fares via
UK travel agents. The site links to some of the agents who offer their
service.

Flights.com (http://www.flights.com (Who's computer is this?) ) (formerly called TISS) is an online
database in Germany with current airfares provided by a group of
consolidators. They offer departures from a lot of different countries, now
including the U.S. They claim the prices they offer are the best available.
For routes within the US they act as a front end to flifo. One reader reports
a bad experience with their US agent, rebooking his reservation in a way that
lost the discount fare he'd reserved, although he'd had good results with
their UK agent.

Air Fare (http://www.air-fare.com (Who's computer is this?) ) tracks lowest fares among major U.S.
cities, with daily updates of significantly lower fares. Worldspan-based Res
and ticketing also available.

Deal Checker (http://www.dealchecker.co.uk (Who's computer is this?) ) compares fares and hotel prices
from major UK web sites.

* Prognostication

Farecast (http://www.farecast.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) attempts to predict future airfares so you
can pick the best time to buy your tickets. Their list of cities, originally
only Boston and Seattle, has expanded to a modest list of domestic airports,
so if they happen to cover your favorite route, it's an interesting idea.

* Checkin snipers

Sniping is geek-speak for an automated system that visits a web site on your
behalf just in time to meet a deadline. Now that airlines offer on-line
checkin, a checkin sniper allows you to register with it ahead of time, so it
can check you in the moment the airline allows it, thereby getting the best
available seat or upgrade.

Seat Sniper (http://www.seat-sniper.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) offers checkin on Southwest,
currently completely free.

Checkin Sooner (http://checkinsooner.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) offers checkin on Southwest,
American, Delta, Continental, and United. Limited service is free, extra
goodies for $79/yr.

Board First (http://boardfirst.com (Who's computer is this?) ) offered checkin on Southwest for $5 each,
but shut down due to legal objections from Southwest.

* Detailed fares and availability

Expert Flyer (http://www.expertflyer.com (Who's computer is this?) ) provides detailed seat and fare
availability information, similar to what a travel agent sees. Five day free
trial, then limited access for $5/mo, full access for $10/mo. If you fly a
lot, it's invaluable for finding which flights have seat upgrades available,
which ones have seats at particular fares, and other detailed info for finding
the exact flights one wants.

* Real-time flight status and information

Flightstats (http://www.flightstats.com (Who's computer is this?) ) provides realtime flight departure
and arrival information along with related goodies like airport delays,
historical lateness stats and more. With free registration, get alerts by
email or SMS.

Expedia (http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=flin (Who's computer is this?) ) now has real-time
flight ops including times and gates for major US airlines.

The Track A Flight (http://www.trackaflight.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) service (formerly Flyte
Trax, same organization as flytecomm.com) also provides real-time position map
and ETA for most domestic flights, by flight number, or departing or arriving
airports. It's as nice as TheTrip.

Flight Arrivals (http://www.flightarrivals.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) offers impressively complete
arrival info for most US airports. (It even has info for the teensy Ithaca NY
airport.) No maps, but lots of data.

* Itinerary Lookup

Each of the GDS has a web site where you can look up the details of the record
for a reservation if you have the locator code, generally a sequence of six
letters or digits, and the passenger's last name. A single trip can have
information on more than one system. For example, if you make a United
Airlines reservation on Travelocity, the main Travelocity record is on Sabre,
but there's a copy on United's home system Galileo, as well. Each system has a
different locator code, and it can be hard to find the codes for other than
the original system. Virtually There sometimes shows the locator for other
system records as the Confirmation field, although you have to figure out or
guess which system it's on.

Every travel agent except Orbitz uses one of the GDS to make its reservations
so the master record for each trip is available through one of the systems.
The online systems usually show the locator code on one of the confirmation
screens, and any airline or local travel agent will tell your the locator for
your reservation if you ask. Since Orbitz uses its direct connect technology
to make reservations directly with many airlines, the master record is on
Orbitz itself and as far as I can tell you can't tell the airline's locator
until you get your boarding pass.

Virtually There (https://www.virtuallythere.com) can show records from Sabre
inclding reservations on Travelocity, American Airlines, and US Airways.

Check My Trip (https://www.checkmytrip.com) can show records from Amadeus,
including reservations on Continental and many European airlines.

My Trip and More (http://www.mytripandmore.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) can show records from
Worldspan, including reservations on Delta and Northwest.

View Trip (https://www.viewtrip.com/en-us/ViewTrip.asp) can show records from
Galileo, including reservations on United.

Some of these systems will also show rental car and hotel info if they're
included in the same records.

Airlines often offer special fares or promotions to Internet users, and there
are some other specialist outfits selling tickets on-line.

* Special fare newsletters and sites

Smarter Travel (http://www.smartertravel.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) collects weekly specials from
selected major cities and both puts them on their web site and e-mails them to
mailing lists. You can sign up for the cities you're interested in flying
from, as well as general newsletters about travel deals.

Also see their companion site Airfare Watchdog
(http://www.airfarewatchdog.com (Who's computer is this?) ) which has a fine compendium of low fares by
city, with useful suggestions for nearby cities that might have lower fares.

Travelzoo (http://www.travelzoo.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) offers a gazillion different services
including a weekly Top 20 Deals newsletter and a meta-meta-search in which you
tell it the cities and dates, and they offer links to sites you might want to
search. (Selection surely not affected by how much commission they pay.)

The Wednesday Airfares webring (http://www.bomis.com/rings/airline (Who's computer is this?) ) has links
to many sites with. on-line specials, although they should really update it to
take out the link to TWA.

Travelocity has a Travel Deals page that often has private fares, two-for-one
deals, and the like. Click Flights on the home page, then Deals on the blue
bar.

* Ticket auctions and the like

Priceline (http://www.priceline.com (Who's computer is this?) ) sells tickets over the web using a
peculiar system sort of like an auction. You tell them where and when you want
to go and how much you're willing to pay. You have to be prepared to go at any
time of day, on any major domestic airline or one of a list of international
ones, and to accept a stop or change of plane. You tell them what you're
willing to pay, along with credit card info. If they find a ticket at that
price, you've bought it and can't change or refund it (like most any low-price
ticket.) Flights must originate in the U.S., or via an affiliate, in the U.K.

If they have a ticket available at or below your bid, they'll sell it to you,
but you don't know if you're getting the best price. They'll charge what you
offered even if the carrier would have accepted less, and they make it
difficult to offer increasing bids. They now offer seats on many the major US
airlines and international airlines. except A lot of reports, including
articles in the Consumer Reports Travel Letter, and the Wall Street Journal,
say that in practice bids for lower than published prices are rarely accepted,
and they admit that they accept less than 10% of the bids people make,
although they do sell 15,000 tickets a day. They now also offer normal tickets
where you know the price and the flights ahead of time. I don't see any reason
to buy from them rather than anyone else, but this does at least tell you what
the list price is so you don't bid any higher than that.

I haven't ever bought a ticket through Priceline, but would welcome more
reports from people who have. (I tried to get a NYC hotel room one time, they
turned down all my offers, but I've heard from at least one person who got a
room at a nice Boston hotel for about half the normal price.) The idea of
auctioning left-over tickets is a good one, and it's a shame if it can't be
put into practice. If you're planning to travel on a route well-served by one
of the airlines listed above, and can fly at any time of day, try bidding
slightly less than the best fare you can find on one of the regular
reservation sites or Hotwire and see if they take it. Otherwise, you're better
off with a agent who knows about unpublished fares, many of whom are listed in
subsequent sections of this FAQ.

Hotwire (http://www.hotwire.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a sort of competitor to Priceline now
owned by InterActive Corp which owns Expedia and Hotels.com. You tell them
where you want to go, what dates, and a few conditions such as no red-eye, and
they offer you a price. Unlike Priceline they tell you what price you'll pay
and have an hour to decide before you buy it. Like Priceline, you don't get to
know the times and airline until you buy the tickets. Hotwire is another good
place to check for last minute tickets. It hasn't yet ever offered me a ticket
I wanted to buy, but considering that I fly from Ithaca NY, not exactly a
hotbed of airline competition, I can't say I'm surprised. Flights must
originate in the U.S., but you can fly internationally. They also sell hotels
and rental cars on the same basis; I've gotten some good rental car deals all
of which have turned out to be from Budget.

SkyAuction (http://www.skyauction.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ), in contrast to Priceline and Hotwire,
auctions off tickets and travel packages using a "second bid" scheme similar
to what eBay and other online auctioneers use. (The best strategy is to bid
the maximum you're willing to pay, since if you win you'll pay just enough to
beat the runner up regardless of what your maximum was.) The descriptions of
what they're selling are quite concrete, and you can see what the competing
bids are. Tickets are offered in small lots, you can end up with fewer tickets
than you asked for unless you make a bid "all or nothing". Be sure to add in
the often large service charge for each ticket, and be sure you know what
normal fares are since tickets are often bid up above published fares. I've
bought tickets to London through them, their service was prompt and efficient,
but I've seen reports that it is very difficult to get a refund if there's a
problem with the flights.

General auction sites often have airline tickets available. You can find them
in "Miscellaneous:Travel" at eBay
(http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/category1310/index.html (Who's computer is this?) ). Many of
the tickets offered appear either to be frequent flyer tickets, which the
airline will confiscate if they can tell that you bought them, or dubious
deals where the air tickets are "free" if you buy an expensive vacation
package. There do seem to be a few transferrable bump certificates, and quite
a few ancillary items like drink coupons.

Site 59 (http://www.site59.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) offers last minute weekend travel packages.
They all include air and hotel, but the price is often lower than what you'd
otherwise pay for air only (Travelocity's "last minute deals" are really
Site59.)

* Individual airlines

Air Canada (http://www.aircanada.ca/schedules/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has weekly Websaver special
fares.

Airtran (http://www.airtran.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has weekend specials. Double frequent flyer
credit for specials purchased on-line. (Actually worth something, since six
round trips earn a free ticket.) Also an e-mail newsletter you can sign up for
on the site that announces weekly specials.

Alaska Airlines (http://www.alaskaair.com/Webspecials/start.asp (Who's computer is this?) ) has web
special fares.

American Airlines has weekly mailing lists for ``Net SAAver fares'', otherwise
unadvertised specials from Chicago or Dallas, as well as some hotel packages.
Visit their web page (http://www.aa.com (Who's computer is this?) ) and click on specials on the toolbar
at the top.

American Trans Air (http://www.ata.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has ``net fares'', special fares
available only on their web site.

America West (http://www.americawest.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has Surf'n'Go weekly specials and
Quick Trips air/land package specials.

Austrian Airlines (http://www.aua.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has weekly lists of specials, with
occasional web-only last minute specials.

Cathay Pacific Airlines (www.cathay-usa.com/dotm) has regular web specials.
The currently offer $200 off their all-Asia pass, 21 days with round trip to
Hong Kong and 18 other places they fly for $1299. You have to register in
their free ``Cybertraveller'' at the web site. If you like knick-knacks they
have a 60th anniversary stuffed bear in the online duty-free for about US$20
plus (quite a lot of) shipping.

Continental (http://www.coticket.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has a mailing list and web site for
net-only specials. You buy tickets on-line, but you have to subscribe to the
mailing list to get access. (Site requires cookies.)

Finnair (http://www.us.finnair.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has occasional seat auctions.

Lufthansa's US site (http://www.lufthansa-usa.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has occasional Web
specials and live seat auctions. Sign up for mailing list to find out when
they are.

Malaysia Airlines (http://www.malaysiaairlines.com (Who's computer is this?) ) offers RT from the USA
west coast to Kuala Lumpur and 30 days of travel within Asia for $747 plus
tax, a very attractive deal. (East coast residents should look at the similar
Cathay Pacific offer.)

Northwest (http://www.nwa.com/nwa/flight/promos/index.shtml (Who's computer is this?) ) has promotions
including a few web-only fares which they put on their site on Wednesdays.

South African Airways (http://www.saa.co.za/saa (Who's computer is this?) has) occasional seat auctions.

Southwest (http://www.iflyswa.com/email (Who's computer is this?) has a mailing list) with weekly
specials. Also there's a package specials list
(http://www.swavacations.com/guest/guest.htm (Who's computer is this?) ) with special deals if you sign
their guest book and answer a bunch of nosy questions.

Sun Country (http://www.suncountry.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has weekly on-line ``Cy-Fly''
specials.

United (http://www.ual.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has E-Fares specials for members of their Milage
Plus program posted every Wednesday, also by e-mail. (Signup info on their web
site.) Choose E-Fares from the menu on the home page. You have to sign in but
it's free.

US Airways (http://www.usair.com/travel/fares/esavers.htm (Who's computer is this?) ) has an "e-savers"
mailing list with weekly special fares from (and occasionally to) their hub
cities. Web site also has Internet-only special fares to and from Baltimore
and Washington, with extra frequent flyer miles.

* What about the airlines' own web sites??

Many airlines are on the World Wide Web. Five good directories of them are:

http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/Travel_and_Transportation/Airlines/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.airlineguide.info (Who's computer is this?) http://smilinjack.com/airlines.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://flyaow.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

This list contains only airlines sites that have schedule or booking
information available; see the pages mentioned above for lots of other airline
web pages with other info.

In the discussions below, flight ops means flight operations, that is, delays,
gates, cancellations, and the like. Ticketless ticketing means that rather
than issuing a real ticket, the airline sends you a receipt with a ticket
number. You cite that number and show ID when you check in. They send the
receipt via e-mail, fax, or (if there's time) snail mail. You pay with a
credit card.

This list is for airlines in the United States, Mexico and Caribbean airlines.
The next section lists Canadian airlines, the section after that airlines
elsewhere in the world.

Air Aruba (http://www.interknowledge.com/air-aruba/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has a rather dusty page
with limited route and contact info, on which the most useful item is that
they don't fly any more.

Airtran (http://www.airtran.com (Who's computer is this?) ), a low-fare airline in the eastern U.S., has
schedules, reservations, ticketless ticketing, special offers, and an e-mail
specials newsletter.

Alaska Airlines (http://www.alaska-air.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has a web site with flight info,
reservations, ticketless ticketing, and special offers. Get 500 bonus miles
just for signing up for the weekly newsletter. The reservation system finally
seems to be working reliably, new design is pretty, fare grid is quite usable
but not as cute as the old retro design. Downloadable PDF schedule, too.

Allegiant Air (https://www.allegiantair.com) is a low-fare carrier that flies
MD80s from cities around the country to Las Vegas and vacation destinations in
Florida, as well as Gulfport MI and Phoenix. Reservations, lots of packages,
free tee-shirts with most packages. Assigned seats cost $10 extra. Elvis
glasses available for purchase on many flights. Unlike pretty much every other
airline in the country, they're profitable so book with confidence.

ALM (http://www.airalm.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies to and from the Netherlands Antilles.
Routes, schedules, destination info, and occasional specials.

Aloha (http://www.alohaairlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) ended its passenger service as of the
end of March. With luck, passengers will be reticketed on United or Hawaiian.

America West (http://www.americawest.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule info, reservations, and
ticketless ticketing in a site that is quite attractive now that the images
hold still. Weekly web specials for both air and air/land packages. They've
merged with US Airways, but for now the two airlines are operating sort of
separately.

American Airlines (http://www.aa.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has a newly redesigned very blue web
site with schedules, fares, and flight ops. Reservations and ticketing
available, using the Orbitz booking and search engine. (So much for the
company that built Sabre in the first place, 40 years ago.) They also offer
timetables (http://www.aatimetable.com (Who's computer is this?) ) in various online and printable
formats.

American Trans Air (http://www.ata.com (Who's computer is this?) ) shut down unexpectedly on April 2.
They're bankrupt, no reaccomodation, no refunds other than via credit cards,
no nothing.

Amtrak (http://www.amtrak.com (Who's computer is this?) ) isn't an airline, but they're competitive on
many routes in urban parts of the U.S., and have scenic long distance routes.
Schedule info and reservations available, although the reservation system can
be awfully slow.

BWIA (http://www.bwee.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) used to fly to, from, and around the Caribbean.
They shut down but have been somewhat reincarnated as Caribbean Airlines.

Chalk's Ocean Airways (http://www.flychalks.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flew seaplanes between
Florida and the Bahamas since 1919, making it the world's oldest operating
airline, with only one accident, when a plane fell apart in the air on Dec
19th, 2005. Site is still there, but the airline was shut down in late 2007
and shows no sign of coming back. Too bad.

Click Mexicana (http://www.click.com.mx/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-fare subsidiary of Mexicana
flying elderly F-100 jets on domestic Mexican routes. But with 35" seat pitch
and, beer and tequila on flights over an hour, what's not to like? Six months
interest free on your tickets on most Mexican credit cards.

Continental (http://www.continental.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has a spiffy new design with schedule
info, on-line booking, and flight status. CO.O.L. system offers a general
purpose reservation system with hotels and cars as well as flights, with the
same features as Microsoft's Expedia. Currently offering up to 1000 extra FF
miles for tickets bought on-line. Weekly specials via mailing list or web
site. (CO.O.L. requires cookies.)

Cubana (http://www.cubana.cu/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies from Havana to points in Europe and the
Americas. Schedules, destinations, and fleet info. I wonder where they get the
spare parts for their DC-10 and 727.

Delta (http://www.delta.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has fares, schedules, on-line ticketing, and
flight ops. Currently offering up to 1000 extra FF miles for tickets bought
on-line.

Eos (http://www.eosairlines.com (Who's computer is this?) ) flew all-business 757s between New York JFK
and London Stansted for fares starting around $1000 each way. They shut down
in late April.

The current incarnation of Frontier (http://www.frontierairlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a
low-fare line with a hub at Denver flying to points in the US and Mexico.
They're bankrupt but still flying, saying the bankruptcy is to forestall a
move by their credit card processor to hold back more cash. Site has
reservations, flight ops.

Go! (http://www.iflygo.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a subsidary of commuter carrier Mesa Air that
flies small jets among the Hawaiian islands with fares as low as $35, thereby
setting off a huge inter-island fare war. Site also available in Hawaiian
(http://www.lelegowau.com (Who's computer is this?) ) to demonstrate their street cred.

Hawaiian (http://www.hawaiianair.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies within Hawaii, to the South
Pacific, and to the U.S. west coast. Bankrupt but still operating.

Independence Air (http://www.flyi.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is the new name for Atlantic Coast
Airlines, ran out of money and stopped operating as of Jan 5.

Interjet (http://www.interjet.com.mx/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a new Mexican low-fare airline with
a hub at Toluca. Site has flights and hotel packages. It's all in Spanish
except for the Hacker Safe logo at the bottom of the pages.

Jet Blue (http://www.jetblue.com (Who's computer is this?) ), an airline that may yet bring sane airfares
to upstate New York, has an elegant web site with routes, fares, and on-line
ticket sales, Don't miss the rotating 3-D Airbus A320, even though it does
make Internet Exploder crash.

LIAT (http://www.liatairline.com (Who's computer is this?) ), who island-hop in the Caribbean, has a web
site with reservations and frequent flyer info, except no matter what airports
and dates I put into their res form, it says there's no flights on those
dates.

Maxjet (http://www.maxjet.net (Who's computer is this?) ) was another entry in the premium low-cost
niche, offering one daily all business class 767s roundtrip between New York
JFK, Dulles, and Las Vegas to London Stansted. They're bankrupt, and seem
unlikely to resume flying. They bought tickets on Eos for their remaining
passengers.

Mexicana (http://www.mexican.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has reservations, packages, frequent flyer
program, and a lot of buggy Javascript. News reports say they may yet merge
with Aeromexico.

Midwest Airlines (http://www.midwestairlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ), formerly Midwest Express,
has routes, schedules, and fares. Also seat maps and a surprising number of
missing pages, like the one that's supoosed to tell you what other airlines
are in their frequent flyer program. On the ``signature'' flights, the ones
that don't go to vacation places, the chocolate chip cookies are still free.
They recently sold themselves to private equity group TPG and Northwest, to
avoid a hostile bid from Airtran. That means they're independent for now, but
if TPG later sells their share to Northwest, kiss those cookies goodbye.

New England Airlines (http://www.ids.net/flybi/nea/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies between Block
Island RI and Westerly RI. Schedule and fare info, reservations via an e-mail
form.

Northwest Airlines (http://www.nwa.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule, fares, reservations, and
flight ops, using the Orbitz booking and search engine. Weekly Cybersaver
specials offered, book through the web site for the lowest price. On-line
store offers a $12.99 plush moose and a $279 1/100 scale 747-400. That's only
$10/inch!

Pan Am (http://www.flypanam.com (Who's computer is this?) ), the airline that just won't believe that
it's dead, flies small commuter planes among obscure cities in the northestern
US like Elmira and Trenton, and one route to Sanford FL. It's owned by the
parent company of the Boston and Maine railroad and has no connection to the
old Pan Am other than buying the logo. Online schedules, reservations, and
destination info.

Skybus Airlines was a low cost carrier with teaser $10 fares. But they're dead
now.

Song (http://www.flysong.com (Who's computer is this?) ) was Delta's low-cost airline within an airline.
Their web site was all fluffy and beautiful and offered the same stuff as
everyone else, schedules, reservations, flight ops, and online checkin. Now
it's just part of Delta.

Southwest Airlines (http://www.iflyswa.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedules and fares, and now
reservations and ticketless ticketing. The graphics are still too big, but the
site loads faster than it used to. Mailing list for weekly specials.

Spirit (http://www.spiritair.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-cost airline that flies between
Florida and the northeast and midwest, and also from Detroit and Chicago to
California. Has schedules, reservations, and weekly "syber" specials. You can
change the name on any ticket for $25. Wow!

Sun Country (http://www.suncountry.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ), a regional airline headquartered in
Minneapolis, is once again running scheduled service on new 737s from MSP to
places all over the US and nearby warm-weather vacation spots.

Ted (http://www.flyted.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is United's low-cost airline within an airline.
Their previous attempt, Shuttle by United, failed dismally, but what the heck,
maybe the laws of economics are different this year. The web site is United's
with minor cosmetic changes. Either the United version or the Ted version
shows you the same flights and fares. Join the Ted Club which appears to be
Milage Plus and a mailing list with special deals.

Transmeridian (http://www.tmair.com (Who's computer is this?) ) ran out of money and liquidated. Ah,
well.

TWA has been absorbed into American (http://www.aa.com (Who's computer is this?) ). Where's Howard Hughes
now that we need him?

United (http://www.united.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has resdesigned their site so at last it is
reasonably functional. Reservations and booking via ITN. When you do online
check-in, they will try to upsell you to first class (not worth it), and
economy plus (worth it for long trips.) Sometimes they goof and give you first
class when you've only paid for E+.

US Airways (http://www.usair.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedules and reservations via a site
that looks to have the same underlying engine as Travelocity. Booking is nice
when it works, but half the time I get an error message rather than a ticket.
(Deleting all your cookies often helps.) 1000 frequent flyer miles for tix
bought online. Also weekly weekend travel specials from (and occasionally to)
USAair hub cities. They've merged with America West, but for now the two
airlines are operating somewhat separately.

US Helicopter (http://www.flyush.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies spiffy blue helicopters from Wall
Street to JFK and back every hour, with a daily side trip to Bridgeport for
suburbanites. If you're connecting at JFK to American, it saves a lot of time
(which for $165 for a 10 minute flight, it better.) If you're on any other
airline, it doesn't. Flash-heavy site has reservations and the usual stuff.
Charters available, if sharing a helicopter with 7 other people is just too
common.

USA 3000 (http://www.usa3000airlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies a sparse schedule of A320s
between the northeastern US, and Florida and the Caribbean with pretty low
fares. Onboard services include food, movies, and "first flight" certificates
for small children. (Nice, but not as cool as the Jr Pilot wings TWA gave me
in about 1959.) Schedules, reservations, flight ops. The site uses a lot of
Javascript but it all seems to work.

Virgin America (http://www.virginamerica.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) plans to start up in August
flying among San Francisco, LAX, New York, Washington, Las Vegas. Spiffy Web
site (what else would you expect from Virgin?) has tickets, flight info,
online checkin, frequent flyer program, and a lot of Flash videos that don't
work in my ancient 2006 vintage Flash 7 player. Flights are fairly cheap, e.g.
$200 one-way transcon, everything costs extra starting with an exit row seat
at $25. Until December 21, enter promo code ELEVATE25 for 25% off any flight
through March. Warning: Acceptable use policy for the in-flight entertainment
system specifically forbids sending spam.

* Airlines in Canada

Air Canada (http://www.aircanada.ca/schedules/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule info,
reservations, ticketing, online checkin, seat maps, airport info (including a
two-page downloadable PDF explaining the immensely complex new Toronto
connection options) and weekly Websaver special fares. Aussi disponible en
francais (http://www.aircanada.ca/francais/horaires/ (Who's computer is this?) ). Site uses a lot of
Javascript which usually works except when you're in a hurry.

Air St Pierre (http://www.airsaintpierre.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies from St Pierre (which,
for those who slept through geography class, is a French island near
Newfoundland) to nearby points. Schedule and fares, in French, now some info
in English.

Air Transat (http://www.airtransat.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a Canadian scheduled charter line
that flies to the US, the Caribbean, and Europe. Well-organized web site has
schedules, reservations, and flight ops.

Bearskin Airlines (http://www.bearskinairlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies small planes around
northern Ontario and Manitoba with hubs in bustling Thunder Bay and Sioux
Lookout. Sounds like fun. Info and reservations via a private label version of
Amadeus. The logo sweatshirts are attractive but seem a little pricey at
C$49.95.

Kenn Borek Air (http://www.borekair.com (Who's computer is this?) ) offers scheduled service around the
Canadian arctic and charter service in the area between the North and South
poles.

Canadian Airlines has been absorbed into Air Canada, familiarly known as
Mapleflot.

Canjet (http://www.canjet.com (Who's computer is this?) ) shut down its scheduled service as of September
10th. Before that, they offered low fare flights on 737s in Canada with a few
routes to New York and Florida. They may still run vacation charters to the
Caribbean.

Firstair (http://www.firstair.ca/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies around the Canadian arctic with
connections to the south, Site has has schedule, reservations, travel info,
and stuff you don't worry about farther south like which planes can land on
ice. (But you can no longer get from North America to Greenland without flying
through Iceland.)

Harmony Airways (http://www.harmonyairways.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flew from Canada to vacation
places, but their scheduled service stopped on April 9.

Jetsgo (http://www.jetsgo.com (Who's computer is this?) ) was a low-cost Canadian carrier that was eating
Air Canada's lunch until they suddently stopped operating in March 2006.

Porter Airlines (http://www.flyporter.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies small planes with leather
seats and free beer between Ottawa and the downtown Toronto Island airport.
(Finally!) Stylish site tells you how elegant and state of the art they are,
and also sells tickets and the usual stuff.

Via Rail Canada (http://www.viarail.ca (Who's computer is this?) ) isn't an airline but is competitive in
the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor. Schedule and fare info, on-line
reservations. Aussi disponible en francais. (Was developed in French and
translated into English, I know the guy who did it.)

Westjet (http://www.westjet.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a relatively low-fare Canadian airline,
currently the only remaining significant competitor to Air Canada. Schedules,
reservations, flight ops. Weekly web specials can occasionally be pretty
cheap.

Zoom Airlines (http://www.flyzoom.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies their three planes on a sparse
schedule between Canada and Britain and France. (Don't miss the cute animated
route map.) Online reservations, with date or name changes for C$50. The site
will be nice when it's done, but for now there's an awful lot of place holder
pages.

* Airlines in Europe

Aegean Air (http://www.aegeanair.com/aegeanen/home/index.asp (Who's computer is this?) ) is a new full
service with moderate fares, airline flying around Greece and elsewhere in
Europe with nice new RJ-100s and tired old 737s. They're an attractive
alternative to Olympic.

Aer Lingus (http://www.aerlingus.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has on-line booking with a useful fare
calendar (click the Lowest Fares Availability link below the reservation box)
that shows when cheap fares are available. Use up those frequent flyer points
now, they've left the Oneworld alliance.

African Safari Airways (http://www.africansafariclub.com/html/flights.php (Who's computer is this?) ) has
been in operation since 1967 and fly from UK, Germany, Switzerland, France,
Italy and Austria to Kenya. Flights and tour packages.

Air Berlin (http://www.airberlin.com (Who's computer is this?) ) flies from about twenty hubs in Germany
to holiday spots all over Europe and North Africa and to London. The very
thorough web site has schedules, reservations, specials, and lots of other
info, including the fact that the airline was originally headquartered in
Oregon, USA.

Air Europa (http://www.air-europa.com (Who's computer is this?) ), a low-cost airline based in Spain, has
routes and schedules in an intriguing mix of English and Spanish.

Air France (http://www.airfrance.us (Who's computer is this?) ) has an elegant and stylish site (would
you expect any less?) with the usual info, reservations, and frequent flyer
services. Weekly email newsletter has occasional deals to Europe and the
mid-East, also occasional biz class tickets for prices not much over full
coach.

Alitalia (http://www.alitalia.it (Who's computer is this?) ) is the Italian flag carrier with a web site
in, not surprisingly, Italian. USA site (http://www.alitaliausa.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has info
and reservations via a lightly customized version of ITN/Getthere. They also
have online specials, some of which are pretty good. The Italian government is
trying to sell off Alitalia which will probably cause strikes, since there is
no way they can compete with other European airlines without cutting their
huge labor costs.

Aer Arann (http://www.aerarann.ie (Who's computer is this?) ) flies ATR turboprops within Ireland and to
Scotland, England and the Isle of Man.

Air Scotland seems to have disappeared without a trace.

Austrian Airlines (http://www.aua.com (Who's computer is this?) ) offers schedule and availability info,
and a downloadable Excel spreadsheet schedule. Also special offers in a
sometimes inscrutable mix of German and English.

L'Avion (http://www.lavion.com/us/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies between Newark and Paris service
with relatively low-priced business class 757s, with nice seats but not the
flat beds you get on some other airlines. They will be absorbed into BA's
Openskies, and their web site already offers Openskies' flights.

British Airways (http://www.british-airways.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedules and
reservations on an improved site with ticket-by-mail. Also flight ops, and,
depending on what part of the site you believe, there may be some special
offers for some flights departing from some countries, sometime.

British Midland (http://www.flybmi.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has a Web-based booking and ticketing
system which lets you reserve and buy tickets.

bmibaby (http://www.bmibaby.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-fare subsidiary of British Midland,
with Flights from regional airports in England and Wales to business and
vacation destinations in Ireland and Europe. Before you book, check that there
isn't a cheaper fare from a nearby airport on bmi (above.)

SN Brussels Airlines (http://www.flysn.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is trying very hard to persuade us
that they're not Sabena. (Legally they're not, but they arose from the ashes
of the Sabena bankruptcy and seem to have the same cheerfully inept attitude.)
They fly around Europe and to a few places in Africa, but not to North
America. Flights to the US on their web site are in fact code-shares on
American.

Cityjet (http://www.cityjet.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies small jets from London City airport to
Paris and Dublin, and promises lots of other destinations real soon now. It's
headquartered in Dublin but is owned by Air France. Site has the usual stuff,
reservations end up on AF web sites.

Crossair (http://www.crossair.ch/ (Who's computer is this?) ), has morphed into the new Swiss
(http://www.swiss.com (Who's computer is this?) ) Swiss airline that's filling the hole left by
Swissair's demise.

Easyjet (http://www.easyjet.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low fare airline with a hub at London
Luton. Site offers routes, reservations, and other info, with garish but easy
to read orange and blue graphics. Don't miss the stuffed pilot bear with
goggles and faux leather jacket, for only L 5.95. They acquired and absorbed
Go, formerly the low fare branch of British Airways.

Eastern Airways (http://www.easternairways.com (Who's computer is this?) ) flies small planes to cities
around the UK with fares ranging from cheap to rather high. Routes, schedules,
fares, reservations. Baggage rules say "On board use of the ghetto-blaster
type or radio or tape player is an irritant to other passengers and is
forbidden."

Excel Airways (http://www.xl.com (Who's computer is this?) ) flies from the UK to vacation destinations
in southern Europe and north Africa, primarily package vacations. Dense,
functional has all the stuff they offer.

Finnair (http://www.us.finnair.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule info and occasional have
seat auctions. They have a reservation system hosted by Amadeus, but for some
reason they only let you buy expensive business class tickets through it.
Travellers in Finland can apparently access the web site through their cell
phones, which is kind of cool.

flybe (http://www.flybe.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-fare airline with hubs at Bristol,
Exeter, Southampton and Birmingham, flying mostly within the UK and from the
UK to Europe. Schedules and reservations. It used to be called British
European, but that name evidently wasn't contrived enough.

GermanWings (http://www.germanwings.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is a cost airline flying from its
base at Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart all over Europe. E-Specials (see tab near
top of home page) include ticket sales and hotel discounts.

Globespan (http://www.flyglobespan.com (Who's computer is this?) ) flies between Scottish airports and
mostly Mediterranean destinations. Site offers booking of flights and vacation
packages.

Hapag-Lloyd Express (http://www.hlx.com/en/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a cost airline, flyingfrom
Cologne/Bonn and Hannover to airports in Spain, Italy, England and Germany.
Schedules, reservations, destination info.

Hellas Jet (http://www.hellas-jet.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) flies from Greece to major cities
Europe. It's a subsidiary of Cyprus Airways. Online booking via a
private-label version of ITN, frequent flyer program,

Iberia (http://www.iberia.es/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedules and fares in Spanish, English,
Danish, Swedish, Japanese, and Russian. Reservations through a private label
Amadeus site.

Iceland Express (http://www.icelandexpress.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is an Icelandic low cost
airline linking Reykjavik with London and Copenhagen. Nice icebergs on the web
site, and you can change the name on a ticket for only L 20.

Icelandair (http://www.icelandair.com (Who's computer is this?) ) flies between the US and Europe, via
their hub in Iceland. Reservations, flight info, specials. Lucky Fares mailing
list offers trans-Atlantic specials most weeks, occasionally at amazing
prices.

Jet2 (http://www.jet2.com (Who's computer is this?) ) fliees from Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, and Belfast
in the UK to Spanish and French holiday spots, Amsterdam, Prague and Milan.
Schedules, reservations, links to places to buy holiday cottages.

KLM (http://www.klm.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has a gateway site to national sites all over the
world, most of which offer schedules and some offer reservations. The US and
Canada sites are actually Northwest's. They're owned by Air France, but the
web sites don't seem to have noticed yet.

Lufthansa Info Flyway (http://www.lufthansa.com (Who's computer is this?) ) offers schedule info (for
most airlines, not just LH) and also reservations. Also has a US site
(http://www.lufthansa-usa.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) with info tailored to US customers, including
occasional Web Specials live seat auctions.

Luxair (http://www.luxair.lu (Who's computer is this?) ) flies from Luxembourg to the places that
Luxemburgers (or is it the Luxembourgeois) want to go, business and vacation
destinations around Europe. Schedules, reservations, destination info
including the daily menu specials at the airport restaurant.

Malev (http://www.malev.hu (Who's computer is this?) ) Hungarian airlines has an attractive site with
schedule info. There's supposed to be fare info but it pops up a box saying
it's out of order.

Manx Airlines (http://www.manx-airlines.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule info.

Mytravellite (http://www.mytravellite.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low cost airline flying from
Birmingham (UK) to Ireland and Spain. Schedules, reservations, destination
info. Small discount offered for online booking.

Norwegian Airlines (http://www.norwegian.no (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low cost airline flying from
Oslo to Norway and elsewhere in Europe. Site has reservations and info mostly
translated from the Norwegian.

Olympic (http://www.olympicairlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ), the flag carrier of Greece, has a
basic site with online booking.

Openskies (https://www.flyopenskies.com/) is a new subsidiary of British
Airways that currently flies between Paris and New York, and plans to add
flights from other European cities. (It's named after the treaty that lets
them do that.) Spiffy site has the usual stuff; their premium economy gets
rave reviews, close to biz class at much lower fares.

Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.ie (Who's computer is this?) ) is a rapidly expanding low-fare airline with a
hub at London Stansted and minor hubs in London Luton, Dublin, Shannon,
Glasgow, Brussels, Stockholm Skavsta, Frankfurt Hahn, and Milan Orio Al Serio.
Web site offers routes, fares, and booking. Fares start at one cent but rarely
stop there.

SAS (http://www.sas.se (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule info on-line, and in large downloadable
text file. Windows interface program (2MB download) lets you search through
the schedule file, but it's far faster to search with a text editor. Also
limited reservations for pass holders and frequent flyer redemptions.

Silverjet (http://www.flysilverjet.com (Who's computer is this?) ) used to fly all-business 767s between
uncrowded albeit somewhat remote London Luton and Newark for about $1000 each
way, but like its all-business competitors Eos and Maxjet ran out of cash and
shut down.

Swiss (http://www.swiss.com (Who's computer is this?) ), the successor to Crossair, has schedule info and
on-line booking on a somewhat sloppy site, and some web specials. (Click
Special Offers on the home page.) They're about to be taken over by Lufthansa,
but it's not clear whether it'll continue to operate as a separate airline.

Swissair went bankrupt in September 2001 and their schedules have somewhat
been taken over by Swiss airlines.

Transavia (http://www.transavia.nl/en (Who's computer is this?) ) is a subsidiary of KLM flying from
Amsterdam to holiday destinations in Europe and north Africa. Info and online
reservations. Their former low-cost subsidiary Basiqair is now merged into
Transavia.

Virgin Atlantic (http://www.fly.virgin.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has a spiffy looking site with
reservations, fares, and ticketing. Also tours and occasional specials.

VLM (http://www.vlm-airlines.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-cost airline flying small planes
mostly between the UK and Benelux. (The V stands for Flemish.) Schedules,
reservations, company history.

* Airlines elsewhere in the world

Air Asia (http://www.airasia.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a startup headquartered in Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia) offering low-fare single-class point to point service along the
lines of JetBlue or Ryanair. They have some amazing intro fares, like round
trip from Kuala Lumpur to Johor, across the bridge from Singamore, for RM78,
about US$20. Online reservations, info, and a nice three page menu of onboard
food offerings. I think I'll try the Asian egg salad sandwich. In September
2007, a new affiliate called (for the moment) AirAsia X
(http://www.airasia.com/site/en/page.jsp?reference=aax_pr1 (Who's computer is this?) ) will start
low-fare long haul service between Malaysia and points as far away as Europe.

Air India (http://home.airindia.in/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has a home page chock full of dancing,
blinking flash animations that looks like an Asian bazaar (which, I suppose,
it is.) Site is oddly organized but has the usual stuff, online ticketing,
ops, destination info, and so forth. To buy tickets you have to register as a
YATRIK (Your Airline Travel Reservation Internet Kit.) It's different in
India.

Air New Zealand (http://www.airnz.co.nz (Who's computer is this?) ) offers schedules and booking via a
private-label version of ITN/Getthere, which one time assured me that you
can't fly from Auckland to New York. It's better now, although it doesn't seem
to find the best fares. Also special fares and frequent flyer info. Once
you're on the plane, though, the service is great, particularly those flat bed
business class seats.

ANA (http://www.ana.co.jp/eng/int/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is Japan's #2 airline, flying both
domestic and international routes. Site is not fancy but very functional with
much better fare info than most airlines offer. Once you buy a ticket, don't
miss the cute animated seat selector.

Ansett Australia (http://www.ansett.com.au (Who's computer is this?) ) stopped flying in March 2002. But
the web site has lots of tedious details of the financial dissection of the
carcass.

Aerolineas Argentinas (http://www.aerolineas.com.ar (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedules and
reservations (for Argentine residents) through a private label version of
Amadeus. In Spanish and English. I think it's flying this week, labor has been
battling owner Iberia.

Cathay Pacific (http://www.cathay-usa.com (Who's computer is this?) ), Hong Kong's airline, offers
booking through ITN and a variety of special offers such as bonus AA frequent
flyer miles or package deals to Asia.

El Al (http://www.elal.co.il (Who's computer is this?) ) has U.S. schedules and some US-oriented package
info. Appears to have on-line booking although I couldn't get it to work.

Emirates (http://www.emirates.com (Who's computer is this?) ), the airline of Dubai, has an attractive
site with info about schedules, packages and special offers, and requent flyer
info. The on-line booking makes it easy to search by schedule, even among
multiple days, somewhat possible to search by fare, and due to Javascript bugs
I can't tell whether it actually sells tickets.

Gol (http://www.voegol.com.br (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-fare airline flying in Brazil and a
few adjacent countries. Routes, fares, e-tickets, ground connections. Nice
flash animation of flying pigs on the home page.

Lan Chile (http://www.lanchile.cl (Who's computer is this?) ) has an attractive multi-lingual site with
schedules, fares, and some cheap Internet-only specials.

Malaysia Airlines (http://www.malaysiaairlines.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has route and schedule
information, with frequent special deals, but if you want to buy a ticket, you
have to call them.

Pacific Blue (http://www.flypacificblue.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) is a new bit of the Virgin
empire that flying from New Zealand to Australia and other South Pacific
points and, later this year, domestically in New Zealand. The web site is
basically the same as its ozzie parent Virgin Blue, with some really cheap
introductory fares on their new routes.

Polynesian Airlines (http://www.polynesianairlines.co.nz/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has basic routes
and schedules.

Qantas (http://www.qantas.com.au (Who's computer is this?) ) has an attractive site with online booking,
schedule info and flight ops and a downloadable off-line Windows itinerary
manager. Bookings are oriented toward but not limited to Australian residents.

Royal Air Maroc (http://www.royalairmaroc.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ) has an attractive site with a
fragile connection to Amadeus that will occasionally sell you a ticket. Site
has a grab bag of other goodies such as detailed information on many airports
they fly to (but none of the ones in Morocco), and the results of the 4th
World Executive Challenge golf tournament.

Royal Jordanian (http://www.rja.com.jo (Who's computer is this?) ) has a stylish but slow web site with
routes and schedules to and from their Amman hub.

Singapore Airlines (http://www.singaporeair.com (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedule info,
reservations, frequent flyer, and info on their new A380s. It's best viewed
via a server that will filter out anything that's unwholesome.

South African Airways (http://www.saa.co.za/saa (Who's computer is this?) ) has schedules and a little
destination info, but they've toned down the eye-straining graphics.
Occasional seat auctions.

Varig (http://www.varig.com.br (Who's computer is this?) ), is now a subsidiary of low cost carrier Gol,
the old Varig having run out of money and died a while ago. Web site entirely
in Portugese has schedule info and reservations.

Virgin Blue (http://www.virginblue.com.au (Who's computer is this?) ) is a low-fare domestic airline in
Australia with its hub in sunny Brisbane. Schedules and on-line booking. Lunch
costs extra.


* Are there many on-line agents?

There's lots of them, grouped below by location of the agent and type of
service.

NOTE: All of the descriptions below are edited from info provided by the
agencies themselves. There are many resources other than travel agents
available on the net, as well, but they're not listed here. Most agencies
offer a broad range of services, so the groupings by type of service below are
pretty arbitrary.

NOTE: If you're a travel agent and would like to be listed, drop me a note and
I'll add you. Please make my life easier by e-mailing me a three-line or so
description in the style above. Thanks.

* Generalist agents located in the U.S.

Alexys (http:www.alexys.us) offers air tickets and tours. They have online +
booking /online search for international and domestic flights within USA. +
India a specialty. +

VGO World Inc. <vgoworld@att.net> is a full service travel agency offering low
fares to international and domestic destinations backed with professional and
courteous service. Competitive prices to complicated international trips that
online sites cannot figure.

Montrose Travel (http://www.MontroseTravel.com (Who's computer is this?) ), one of the 50 largest Travel
Agencies in the United States combines online deals and discounts with
unmatched offline service.

EZTrip.com (http://www.eztrip.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ), an online agency in Missouri, offers
tickets, hotels, rental cars, and modest amounts of destination info.


Bayless Travel Associates (http://www.baylesstravel.com (Who's computer is this?) ) Full-service Vacation
Travel (Domestic and International) in Oklahoma City. Book your vacation
on-line.

Isha Tours & Travels (http://www.ishatravels.com (Who's computer is this?) ) in Edison NJ provide
consolidators airfares to anywhere in the world.

Enid Cohen <enid.cohen@worldtravel.com> affiliated with WorldTravel Partners
in Dallas, has over 30 years of experience both arranging travel and
travelling herself, specializes in meticulous, old-fashioned service to
business and leisure/personal travellers.

Compass Point Travel <travel@cptravel.com> is a full service agency that
welcomes Internet customers. Specialties include custom planning of major
trips, Club Med, discount cruises, adventure travel, and US-originating
international travel. Web page (http://www.cptravel.com/ (Who's computer is this?) ).

Germantown Travel <airtkts@airtravel.com> in Germantown Md is a full service
airline ticket agency suppling information and discounted tickets for domestic
and international travel. Web site (http://airtravel.com (Who's computer is this?) ) with special fares
and Caribbean tour info.

CTM Travel <ctm-trav@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us> in Coral Springs FL welcomes
business from the Internet.

Genie Travel Services Inc. <info@genietravel.com> specializes in discounted
international and domestic airline tickets for Internet customers. For prices,
see their web page (http://www.genietravel.com (Who's computer is this?) ).

Endeavour Travel <Endeavour@Anzac.com> i