Discount travel company

Cyber savings?

Well, friends, there's a lot of chatter going around about how to save money by buying travel on the Internet.

Is it possible? I don't know. But a lot of folks are trying to sell the idea.

I've heard good things about Terrell Jones, who runs Travelocity, an online travel site owned by Sabre Holdings. They're based in Fort Worth, Texas, and they lead the online industry in sales.

Jennifer Case is the Chief Executive of WebMiles.com, a company based in Sandy, Utah, that specializes in providing merchants with travel-reward programs for customers. Buy a radish or a Rolex and earn travel miles on any airline, anytime, with no blackout periods. The firm is coming out with a credit card that can be used to earn miles that can be redeemed for tickets. Consumers will be credited with two miles for every $1 worth of purchases.

Pamela Bergeson, founder and president of Bid4Vacations, is optimistic her Westminster, Colorado-based site will enjoy success by letting customers bid for plane seats and vacations.

Five U.S. airlines announced that they would also launch a site by midyear to offer cut-rate and special airfares available only on the net. United, Delta, Northwest, Continental and American plan to offer the same flight discounts and other options that online travel firms flash on your computer screen. Fifty other airlines are also expected to use the site to sell Net-only fares.

With their own site, airlines can avoid paying commissions to online companies.

An added starter in this online travel business is Milepoint.com, and there are several credit cards that carry mileage-plus benefits.

Also new is Savvio.com, which launched the world's first falling-price travel website. The site offers a wide selection of air and cruise tickets with prices that drop as people monitor the site.

All of this competition is probably good for serious travelers. Yet it means we'll have to do a lot of online research to find the really best deals and how to save money without agreeing to a litany of confusing restrictions.

Recovering frequent-flyer miles can be a hassle sometimes, with restrictions, limited available seats and holiday blackout periods.

I called up the Yahoo search engine and requested information on travel. Turns out there were 16,973 categories and 19,206 sites found. Whoa! But you can carve it down to a particular destination or carrier. It's actually kind of fun to browse some of the travel sites.

A bugaboo facing online travel firms is what airlines, cruise companies and hotels will do as online competition intensifies. It will be an interesting dogfight.

A friend of mine was planning a visit to Berlin, returning to San Francisco with a stop in New Orleans. He uses his frequent-flyer miles to upgrade to business or first class on airlines. He fiddled with his computer and found some hotels in both cities at bargain rates. He downloaded restaurant menus and decided where he'd like to dine, then made reservations while he was sitting at his computer with a martini at hand.

"And I had fun doing it," he told me.

It's a brave new world for those of us who travel. ITN readers who try buying travel on the Internet may come across some interesting offers at bargain rates.

I hope so. Give it a try. ITN