The Frugal Flier
Although the summer often disperses Harvard students to all corners of the world, many of them will forever share one thing in common: a hatred for doling out major bucks for airfare. FM thought about what FM wanted to do the first week after finals, and decided to price tickets for week-long trips to various European and star-studded locales. Below we present a guide to the travel deals to be found on the Internet, and the websites that deliver them.
www.cheaptickets.com
CheapTickets may be hard to navigate, but it makes up for that tragic flaw by providing wonderful prices to the Internet-savvy. This website offers two different types of searches—the minimalist express search and the much more involved power search. The site claims the power search is geared toward the flexible traveler, but the number of screens one must pass through to execute a power search might lead one to wonder if flexible traveler is in this case equivalent to “one with no life.”
www.travelocity.com
This website is fast and incredibly easy to navigate. After customers enter departure and arrival destinations, the next screen presents them with handy color-coded calendars that show when the cheapest fares are available. This option might end up saving time and money, as most of the other sites require separate searches for every possible travel date.
www.expedia.com
The last of the big three travel websites seems to stick to a relatively simple format. Expedia is well worth a price comparison and it can be especially entertaining for those who have a penchant for animation. Flying airplanes and twinkling lines dance across the screen as this virtual travel agent processes requests.
www.sta.com
For those who can’t get enough of Harvard and school stuff generally, head to sta.com to find deals catered uniquely for students. This site doesn’t compete as much with the others because it taps into student discounts not offered on the other websites. Most of these deals require a lot of prior planning and seem to sell out fast.
www.flights.com
With its slick black homescreen with a new-agey world map, this website is more reminiscent of a swanky bachelor’s pad rather than your mother’s travel agent’s office. This site seems to prey only the most cosmopolitan of travelers and temptresses, as most of its deals are for international flights only.
www.orbitz.com
Orbitz has multicolored pictures of children on its major screens. It’s a feel-good site. And as a major competitor with travelocity and cheaptickets, the deals to be found here make the delight of this sight all the sweeter.
www.priceline.com (not included)
FM has roommates and friends who have tried to price tickets on this website and have ended up buying tickets to destinations far and wide instead. This site is designed as a psuedo auction house, so one has to put in a bid (and a credit card number) to see what sort of rates are offered. FM kept its maxed out credit card far away from here.