Internet newcomers challenge discounters

So you’ve learned how to navigate Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, and you think you have mastered the art of getting the best rates for flights, cruises and hotels.

Wrong. The world of travel websites is in flux, and newcomers are emerging every few months or so to challenge the established leaders. Frequently, in my experience, you can get better airfares, cabin and room rates by using them. Here are three sites that impressed me:

* 1800cheapseats.com: The company has been around since 1987 but mainly as a telephone operation that urged consumers to call for the cheapest prices on air travel. In August it evolved into a full-scale Internet service as well, and the availability of live reservations agents and Internet technology creates considerable advantages for consumers, says its president, Susan Mesa.

The reservations agents can tap a database of Internet airfares and the occasional lower fares available on global distribution systems, which the airlines operate for travel agents.

* Cheapflights.com: It’s a giant British-run international travel company that only recently created a U.S. presence for people seeking flights within the United States. It also books hotels.

The search engine not only surveys the airfares from airlines (both traditional carriers and start-ups) but also those offered by major consolidators or discounters, which sometimes buy fares in bulk at reduced prices and resell them to the public.

Cheapflights’ main menu is different from those of Expedia and Travelocity. Instead of showing the fare for a specific date of departure and return, the site shows the pattern of fares on various airlines for a continuous period, say, from May 1 to Aug. 30.

If you see a fare you like, you can click on that pattern and the booking engine will display the toll-free phone number to call or the website to access for booking a seat at that fare. Cheapflights.com itself is not involved in the purchase.

* Applefares.com: Another British operation, but this one is devoted to ascertaining the fares and available seats of cut-rate airlines that fly between European cities. On standard airfare-booking engines, you will rarely be offered the seats and prices of such major European cost-cutters as EasyJet, German Wings, SkyEurope, Virgin Express, Volare and others.

Although Applefares.com doesn’t deal with all the 30-some cheap carriers crisscrossing the skies of Europe, it does handle a dozen of them. For availability on the days and routes you wish to fly, try www.applefares.com.

For a list of all the low-cost airlines operating around the world, click on www.lowcostairlines.org.

I’m not suggesting that all the new airfare-booking engines are better than the larger, established ones. Some are relatively useless. But for more available options, it could be worthwhile to visit more sites than just the three giants.