Quick Guide To Business Travel

Now that Preview Travel and Travelocity have merged, what alternatives do you have for online booking? There remain several worthwhile destinations on the Web, including the newly combined Travelocity site. Take a look:

• Priceline.com: For last-minute travel, Priceline.com remains a hot destination. Know what the lowest published fare is on a route, and chances are you can get that price if you bid at the last minute. The same rule applies for bidding on rental cars: Know what the going rate is before sending in a bid.

• Trip.com works with unmanaged business travelers, offering a whole suite of applications that help you track your travel expenses and make the most of your frequent-flier miles. Of interest to frequent travelers is the IntelliTRIP function, a program that scours the Internet and finds the best travel deals for you.

• Biztravel.com is another site that lets you book trips and track your travel. This site--whose founding editor, Christopher McGinnis, co-wrote this Quick Guide--lets you accomplish many of the same things that Trip.com does, with a few variations. For example, a new feature called FareGuard ensures you the lowest fare until you depart. Another program sends flight information to your pager.

Insider tip: Don't forget travel agents. Bricks and mortar may be passé, but with airline commissions cut again, real-life retailers want to show their value. Agents are newly resolved to act as travel consultants.

This article was originally published in the April 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Quick Guide To Business Travel.