Using the I-Way to Fly

Every year, right around this time, many people begin preparing for a dreaded annual event: booking holiday travel arrangements.

The high prices. The blacked-out dates. The dwindling availability of seats.

But smart shoppers now turn to the World Wide Web long before they head out the door. Online travel purchases topped $126 million in 1996, second only to computer products purchased on the Web, according to the technology analyst firm Forrester Research. By 2000, that number is expected to reach $1.6 billion.

Last week, Delta Air Lines announced it is offering discount fares between its Salt Lake City hub and Orange County for customers who make reservations and purchase travel through its SkyLinks Web site (https://www.deltaair.com). These online rates can save users up to 42% per seat.

Delta isn’t the only one hawking online discounts. Northwest sells last-minute, cut-rate weekend fares through its Web site (https://www.nwa.com). The selection of flights and prices is updated weekly.

And American Airlines tempts impulsive vacationers to head for an airport. Once a week, people who subscribe to the airline’s free e-mail list find out about 20 cut-rate fares for the upcoming weekend (https://www.americanair.com/aa_home/aans.html). The savings can be as much as 80%, airline officials said.

“Some of the best bargains can be found on the Internet,” said Tom Parsons, editor of Best Fares magazine and its Web site at https://www.bestfares.com. “But you really need to find information pages that organize all the deals for the customer. There may be deals hidden out there, and if you don’t know where to look, you won’t find them.”

*

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com