| When self-booking travel Web sites were first launched, many business travelers balked at using them; it was much easier to have your travel agent make arrangements. But soon, every airline, hotel and car-rental company had created its own site and booking engine. With transparency came the opportunity to save money.
However, there can be significant price discrepancies among sites. Booking Buddy (www.bookingbuddy.com) helps to make comparison shopping easier. It lets the customer compare the comparers — online agencies (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity), against individual airline sites; aggregators (Hotwire, Sidestep) against each other; Hotels.com against Priceline along with sites you may not have heard of, including Qixo or Kayak.com, an airline site aggregator, and metasearch site Mobissimo. Booking Buddy even searches discount airlines (AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest) that aren’t loaded in every electronic reservation system.
Just enter your itinerary on Booking Buddy once, and then click on the site you wish to visit. The site opens in a new widow with your information. Despite the name, you don’t actually book through Booking Buddy; you make online reservations yourself. |
