Have modem, will travel - booking hotel and airplane reservations over the Web - Internet/Web/Online Service Information

Home Office Computing, July, 1997 by Charles Pappas

Still unhappy, I quickly created my travel profile at Preview Travel (www.previewtravel.com). I used a now-familiar process to find a low-cost flight. Preview offered 10 flights out and nine back, with a wide assortment of times. After I made my final choices, Preview displayed its three Best Fare Finder options. Unfortunately, its Best Fare, $147, was sold out before I could grab a seat.

At $123, Microsoft Expedia was about to win the lowest airfare award, much like it does at everything else. But my America Online browser worked with it about as well as Congressional Democrats do with Republicans. (If you have Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape navigator, you should have no problem.) Expedia refused me entry into its flight reservations area, so I went back to TravelWeb, since it had the widest selection of departure times. After resubmitting my desired travel dates and times, it took just 14 minutes to insert my traveling and billing info to reserve a $147 ticket.

Online or in Person? The question remains: Do you need travel agents anymore? The Web is a powerful guide and an easy tool, which is why such sites as PC-Travel and Expedia each rack up more than $1 million in sales a week. In fact, online travel sales this year are predicted to more than double from 1996 levels, to $276 million. Working online with vendors, however, can be an exercise in frustration, something a travel agent often shields her customers from. The Delta flights I booked were on time. The Omni Crescent hotel I decided on had impeccable service: There's a fax in every room, dataports on each phone, and PCs for rent in their business center, as well as rich Egyptian cottons for my post-prandial snooze.

As for my meal at Trey Yuen, the impetus for this extravaganza? Well, let's just say it was heaven, or as close as someone with my reputation is likely to get. After my lovely wife and I scarfed down a plate of Honey Pecan Shrimp like hungry Clydesdales, she tried the narcotically-good smoked Tea Duck and I braved the spicy marinated sliced gator meat. (Delicious. Tastes more like chicken than luggage.)

The next time I get a craving, I hope it's for something a little closer to home--after all, Alabama does offer...well, I'll think of something I'm sure.

CHARLES PAPPAS flew to New Orleans and happily munched at Trey Yuen--and the editors here never knew he was missing.