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Travel Savings Through Education
Others tell you the problem, here you'll learn what to do about it. Honest, cold, hard comparisons & travel survival tips. I'm a very frequent traveler (not involved with the travel industry) and I've flown more than a million miles on Northwest Airlines (MillionAir flyer) and hundreds of thousands of miles on others.
Want to stretch your travel budget? It's better to educate your travelers, showing them how to save, rather than impose travel restrictions that discourage or prevent valid business trips. For customized, on-site travel education and training, click HERE for more detail, phone 1-248-324-1161 or HERE to contact me. It's the best investment you can make for your travel budget!
Looking for a captivating speaker for your next meeting or convention? Regardless of the type or size of your group, everyone is interested in learning more about travel and how to use the Internet to maximize savings and minimize hassle. Click HERE to contact me.
Bi-monthly comparison of which web site to use: Which sites provide the lowest prices and most useful info with the fewest clicks? One update each other month: air fares, hotels and cars.
January's comparison is for air fare search web sites: Where to find the lowest price and most reasonable alternatives in the shortest amount of time with the fewest number of mouse clicks? Read the details on the "Comparisons" page.
Bi-monthly Travel Tips Newsletter (free). Click HERE to subscribe, please let me know where you heard about my web site. The newsletter is published around the first of the month. Back issues: here. To make sure you receive my newsletter, please add rcowen@ix.netcom.com to your email address book. It's better to subscribe use your home email address because corporate email servers can block newsletters. Emails that are rejected or returned will be unsubscribed. Privacy policy: I do not give your address to anyone and you will receive only one e-mail every other month.
"Do it yourself travel guidebook" $10.00 (updates free for 2 years): Read the table of contents and the first chapter free by clicking HERE and purchase it HERE. Many travel "how to" books list hundreds or thousands of web sites and include a sentence or paragraph about each. My guidebook illustrates over 30 travel web sites and discusses 40 more. That's all that is necessary for many of the world's travelers! It is 61 pages (8 1/2" x 11"). My philosophy has always been to find the most useful information with the fewest number of mouse clicks. In this case, less is more. Experienced and novice travelers as well as travel agents will find it very helpful. It is in PDF format and has many screen shots with my annotations.
Putting it all together, the short course for travel within the US:
(specific details and "how to" in the comparisons section)
Where to go, stay & what to do Fodors
talk boards TripAdvisor
hotel reviews MouseSavers
AllEarsNet for Disney LasVegasAdvisor
Air fare monitor & alerts: FareCompare TripStalker
download FareChase
FareCast FlySpy Orbitz DealDetector
Where to shop for air fares ITASoftware Kayak Southwest Buy at the airline's web site
Rental cars Kayak Hotwire BiddingForTravel Priceline
Hotel deals Travelaxe Check the hotel's web site
Why do people buy? When they feel confident that they have adequately evaluated their choices. Southwest has never had the lowest prices in any of my quarterly tests. However, their pricing is consistently low and does not have huge peaks and valleys. Customers feel that they don't need to worry about missing a big discount if they buy from companies that behave this way. Most of the other airlines have taught the public that it pays to wait for a sale, otherwise you may pay too much. It's no wonder that Southwest has the best conversion rate (percentage of shoppers who purchase). It's all about the conversion rate! Southwest's 14%, Delta 10%, American 9%, Expedia 5%, Orbitz 4% and Travelocity 3%. Conversion rate source: Nielsen/NetRatings.
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