What is your preferred method of booking
 

Fellow Continental OnePass'ers:

What is your preferred method of booking travel? Mine is:

biztravel.com

I like biztravel. It is by far the most powerful booking engine out there. First, you can organize flight options to display by frequent flyer membership preferences. Next, fares display with fare booking class. Furthermore, the engine is very simple and it works well. Finally, and most importantly, is the biztravel guarantee.

I formerly booked on Expedia/COOL. Their service leaves a lot to be desired. Ever tried to change an itinerary with a Continental agent, only to be told you must call 888-XXXXXXX and speak with COOL? Ever have itinerary problems, segments not booking properly, phantom fares, etc? Microsoft does not stand behind Expedia like Rosenbluth Travel stands behind biztravel. Also, Hal Rosenbluth (CEO) is one of the good guys in the corporate world.

Problems tend not to occur with biztravel. If there is a problem, one can invoke the guarantee. Did I mention, if Continental decides to cancel a flight or even delay a flight, you get paid. If Continental mishandles your bag, you get paid. If biztravel gives poor service, you get paid. Let me tell you, nothing can comfort me more on a trip through EWR than the biztravel guarantee.

Any thoughts?

[This message has been edited by TransWorldOne (edited 07-20-2000).]

Biztravel?

I use it as a validator that I'm getting the better deal... elsewhere.

Prices are consistently the highest among airline sites and independent competitors for airfares, car rentals, and hotel rooms.

The interface requires all sorts of convolutions to get something as simple as a fare quote - you've got to name an itinerary, indicate whether it's a business, personal, or both business-and-personal trip; you have to check the "I need a car"/"I need a hotel" box even when you're already in the car/hotel link; that javascript window is outdated, slow, and another thing to hang or otherwise go wrong; etc. You know what I'm talking about.

Availability of flights, cars, and rooms is, by comparison with other sites, severely limited.

The Guarantee - or "Air Lotto," as I call it - is of little value to me, since when I go by air, adherence to schedule is crucial. Want to make money? Get to your business meetings on time and close the deals. That's how you make real money.

Recent talk of Biztravel came up in at least one other forum here at FlyerTalk. Do a search, and you'll see many opinions and a few others which echo what I've stated here.

I used Biztravel with some regularity about a year or two ago. In fact, their flight paging feature saved my ... one morning in waking me up 30 minutes before a flight departure. I amazingly made that flight - even after parking and shuttling over from long term parking. So I am not without gratitude to Biztravel.

But flight paging is everywhere now, and better plans at better prices can be found elsewhere.

In business as in sports, today's headlines are tomorrow's toilet paper.

Since it sounds like you're a loyal OnePass'er, in case you don't know (I didn't until last week, thanks to FlyerTalk), doing your bookings via Continental directly (not CO.O.L.) gets you a 50% mileage bonus on the base miles you fly on the itineraries booked through this mode, which can be substantially more than the 1,000 miles bonus from doing e-ticket online/CO.O.L (which itself is not too bad - but always compare - Travelocity is a suggestion). Of course, you need to be Elite for this 50% bonus to kick in, which it does automatically.

(Do you work for Biztravel? I have to ask - no offense to your person - are you disguising advertising/spam for Biztravel as an inquiry, trying to draw attention to it? It seems lately many are seemingly doing this).

[This message has been edited by FQTV (edited 07-20-2000).]

And who do you work for, or derive income from FQTV?, since you brought up the subject.

I have booked two trips at COOL this year, one in April and one in March. I have not received a 50% mileage bonus. No, I don't work for biztravel.com, Rosenbluth, or any other affiliated companies. I just can't stand COOL. Also, I find that by verifying the fare class of booking, I can make sure I'm getting the best deal. I do an airfare list at Expedia. If T is the cheapest, I just make sure biztravel books me in T.

[This message has been edited by TransWorldOne (edited 07-20-2000).]

Thanks for answering my question on the e-ticket 50% bonus... I have deleted that reference.

[This message has been edited by TransWorldOne (edited 07-20-2000).]

I never got the 50% e-ticket except when PHONING and making reservations. People have said available on COOL I'm scared to try it and lose miles! Snake, calm down it was a fair inquiry... it was an extremly glowing review of a site that cleary has a convoluted search engine. Fqtv is the vice president of the united states by the way http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Eligibility for the bonus comes from (1) booking from CO directly - NOT CO.O.L. (COOL is actually Expedia!), (2) Elite status, and (3) issuance of e-ticket (see further, though).

So, to get this bonus, book by calling the Elite priority line.

If any of your segments involve a codeshare, necessitating a paper ticket to be issued and therefore seemingly disqualifying the 50% bonus, please request the e-ticket requirement to be waived. Even in the short amount of time (about a week) that I have been booking this way, I've done just that and was made eligible for the bonus despite some tickets having to be paper.

As for getting low fares, just tell the rep you want the lowest available fare - specify T/Q class if you want - and it should do the trick. Besides, you'll have a live person working and thinking with you, and whom you can have check this, check that, and challenge if anything unusual turns up.

Welcome aboard.

[This message has been edited by FQTV (edited 07-20-2000).]

Yup, CO.O.L. is Expedia, but Expedia isn't Microsoft. They were spun off a year ago, with their own stock and their own facilities in Bellevue (not Redmond).

Expedia continues to use a service center in Atlanta that I have found to have consistently mediocre service. That remains unchanged, unfortunately.

Interestingly enough, AmEx also uses Expedia's software, but doesn't use their service center. I'm rather curious why the airlines couldn't take the same approach.

I've only used CO.O.L once, and it was ok. In fact, the airfare went down by time my Visa was billed. There were some minor problems on trying to get my upgrade, but nothing major.

For fare-pricing, I use United Connection, the PC version (the web version sucks!) I use it to get my best fare, but then I have to turn it over to our company's travel agency to book it... ironically, that is Rosenbluth!

Can't say that I haven't had problems with Rosenbluth, but I haven't had problems since I found my own personal angel there who takes care of all of my travel needs... and she doesn't even do reservations anymore.

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The only difference between ordinary service and extraordinary service is a little EXTRA.

-- Bob

[This message has been edited by AZ_MISMAN (edited 07-20-2000).]

I used C.O.O.L. extensively last summer when CO was running the AmEx 3,000 mile bouns. (If you booked one-ways, you could score the bonus twice for a round trip.) While it generally worked well, one glitch was that several times, my reservations took a number of hours to ticket, so CO had no record of them, which meant I was unable to upgrade.

As I often choose my flights based on upgrade availability, this was a real drag. I had to keep calling CO over and over again until the darn thing ticketed. If that's an issue for you, C.O.O.L.'s not worth the trouble.

I've tried Biztravel several times and everytime the fare was much higher than CO.O.L, expedia, NW's web site, or calling
the airline. I don't use biztravel anymore.

I generally use the airline web sites(CO, NW,HP) sometimes expedia, and calling CO directly. I take the lowest fare of those.

I generally book from COOL or airlines web sites, Travelocity in those odd times when the fares change (lost a cheap fare on COOL but it was still available on Travelocity). I've noticed that ITN prices things out more expensively, even sometimes for the same flight(s).

I just booked a ticket through the elite line, asked about the E-ticket bonus, was told that there wasn't any, so I requested paper tickets. (All CO flights and planes, I'm Platinum)

I've had a couple of bad experiences with e-service (CO.O.L.)so I avoid 'em. The mileage bonus isn't worth the potential problems in my opinion.

I usually check multiple sites for fares, ITN, Travelocity. I try to book tickets, rental cars, and hotels from time to time on the sites that I use for information.

[This message has been edited by Old Gold (edited 07-20-2000).]

I usually check Expedia/Travelocity for the lowest fares. Then I book an e-ticket by calling CO directly. That way I get the 50% mileage bonus, which is better than the 1000 mile online bonus (in most cases).

By the way, I don't think this 50% mileage bonus for calling CO and getting an e-ticket has anything to do with elite status. I started getting the bonus 2 years ago, before I was elite, and had never been elite. At the time they told me they "randomly selected" onepass members for this promotion. Don't know if I buy that, but I am just happy to still get it.

I ALMOST ALWAYS book on CO-OL for the 1000 mile bonus. It has worked for me just fine. I've gotten the choice of Elite Seating, and gotten my 50% mileage bonus every time.

It IS slow, and on my recent flight where I upgraded with miles, my itinerary on CO-OL does not match what I've confirmed with a CO rep.

I use other services also.

Travelocity and ITN to verify my CO fare is good.

ITN to check F seats for upgrades.

I'll sometimes use ITA when I want to check alternate airports and fares. It would have saved me $300 (trip ended up cancelled) by using ALB instead of BDL and flying into SJC instead of SFO or OAK.

I've course, I'm also probably not the "power user" that many of you folks are!


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

My company has a tie in with ITN, so I almost always use that. I've found the CO web site awkward to use, except for flight status look up.