RESEARCHING ONLINE VACATIONS
© Lain Ehmann
As Eileen Ogintz, family travel columnist, author and guru, wrote in a recent column for Smarter Living (www.smarterliving.com), "By the end of this year, 44 million households, 17 million with kids under 18, will be online. Thirty million of them will be researching travel and 14 million forking over their credit cards to pay for a whopping $13 billion worth of plane tickets, hotels, cruise packages and adventure trips." And, Ogintz continues, over a third of those booking vacations online are families.
To help you in your quest for bargains, keep the following tips for booking online in mind:
1. Be prepared to do some legwork. While it's convenient to pull up the Disney.com website and plug in a few travel dates to see if there's any availability, it's going to take some time. Not only do you have to learn to navigate sites by yourself, there's also all the registration forms to fill out (necessary for reserving tickets on sites like USAirways.com), pages that have to load, and sites to check. You may have to go to four or five different sites to compare prices, check itineraries, and make reservations.
2. Don't forget to look offline, too. Yes, most major companies (including attractions, airlines, and hotels) have websites. But many smaller establishments may have just the bare bones (contact information, for instance) or no website at all. Don't overlook a great attraction or a cute country bed and breakfast just because they didn't come up on your online search. Use the web to supplement - rather than replace - other information sources such as travel agents, Triple A, and guidebooks.
3. Read the small print. Make sure you know exactly what you're getting into when you enter your credit card number on a site. Disney.com, for instance, doesn't have an online option for holding reservations; you're booking automatically once you enter your payment info, and your card will be billed. It's best to find that out before you get your monthly statement!
4. Use reputable sources. Though it's rare, online scams and fraud do occur. To make sure you're not a victim, go to reputable sources, look for the secure server icon at the bottom of your screen, and report any problems or questionable activity to your credit card company immediately.
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