It was about noon one recent Wednesday when I sat down to chase a last-minute Internet travel trifecta. The idea was to test the new crop of discount sites aimed at last-minute travelers and to snag an airfare, hotel reservation and rental car on short notice but at a good price.
And what do I have to show for it? A bit of fading sunburn from hiking, swimming and poolside lounging beneath Arizona skies. A deeper acquaintance with the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright around Phoenix. A $551.51 hole in my credit-card account. And several new favorite Web sites . . . plus a few misgivings.
It's easy to see why increasing numbers of travelers are relying on the Internet to book late-breaking trips. They can do their shopping at any hour wherever they have access to the Web, and they can comparison-shop with a few keystrokes.
In the past couple of years, as Internet booking behemoths such as Travelocity and Expedia have matured, several smaller Internet companies have begun targeting last-minute travelers. Among the sites: LastMinuteTravel and Site 59, both launched earlier this year; 11thHourVacations, which launched last year; and Smarter Living, launched in 1998 without a booking engine but with an excellent airfare search setup.
Sites like these are especially good for airfares, which involve fewer intangibles than hotel bookings do.
For example, when I called US Airways recently to buy a Los Angeles International-London ticket with six days' notice, the operator came up with a price of more than $1,200. But if I had gone through LastMinuteTravel (a test I tried in late October), I could have landed the same ticket from the same airline for about $500.
Still, when it comes to sniffing out the particulars of a deal involving an unfamiliar hotel or rental car outlet, there's no digital substitute for a few minutes of telephone follow-up.
Which brings me back to my misgivings. I did not suffer highway robbery on that weekend in Phoenix. It was, on the whole, a pleasant, reasonably priced 2 1/2 days. But my expenses crept up in annoying ways that were invisible on the Internet. Also, if I'd relied exclusively on the Internet, I'd never have learned how to whittle $30 more off my hotel bill — it took a travel agent to do that — or that my "'on-airport" rental car wasn't.
Using search engines, listening to colleagues' opinions and studying travel sites that pop up on the "most used lists" compiled by companies that track such access, I began my quest.
Among the highs and lows of my search:
Airfare: At 1:30, Internet discount flights at Smarter Living for Phoenix, Seattle and Portland, Ore., seemed like possibilities. I spotted a Phoenix round trip for $69. When I tried specific flights, the best I could do was $80, but that still looked good — it was a flight from Burbank, Calif., more convenient to me than Los Angeles International.
At 2:30 I was lingering on listings of Seattle hotels on sites including Hotel Discounts and TravelNow.
At 4:30 I abandoned thoughts of Seattle (too cold and wet) and Portland and booked the $80 Phoenix fare. Now to nail down a room by a big pool with cactus vistas.
Hotel: I was tempted by Travelocity's offer of a $149 room at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak resort. Expedia had the same hotel at $209 and up, and the hotel itself quoted me $179 when I called. But then I talked with an operator at the Pointe.
She said there was a $149 room, but less than half the size of the resort's traditional standard rooms. It was actually the lockable second bedroom of a suite that sometimes rents as a one-bedroom, sometimes as a two-bedroom. Also, she said, if I was traveling alone, did I know that the Squaw Peak Resort is family-oriented, while its sibling, the Pointe at Tapatio Cliffs, is aimed more at grown-ups? Glad to know that.
Tapatio Cliffs has lots of pools, multiple restaurants and adjacent hiking trails and stables. Travelscape said it was sold out for the weekend. No sign of it on Site 59 or LastMinuteTravel. Travelocity, however, had a standard suite (all the rooms are suites) at $199.
On the telephone, a different Pointe operator said there was a $199 room but that it was a handicapped-access room, with a specially outfitted bathroom. For $214, she said, I could get a nice suite.
At 6:45 p.m. I returned to the Web site and booked that $199 room anyway.
Rental car: At noon Thursday (about 50 hours before my scheduled arrival in Phoenix), I set out to grab the least expensive rental car, screening out off-airport companies for the sake of convenience.
LastMinuteTravel had nothing, but 11thHourVacations came up with Advantage, a company I'd never used, at $20.55 daily. The price at the American Express Web site was a tie between Sears and Budget car rentals at $34.99. Travelocity and Expedia had Dollar car rental at $27.99. But the Atevo site had that subcompact Advantage car at $20.55, but it also told me it was a Suzuki Swift. I booked online. But there was a catch. The screen said, "The rate shown is not confirmed." I called the toll-free customer service number, and after being on hold, an agent explained that his company's computer hookup with Advantage required delays of two minutes to 48 hours for confirmation.
I asked to have my rate confirmed on the spot (but never said I was a reporter). The agent did so. In fact, she reported, she got me a $19.99 daily rate for an economy car, not necessarily a Suzuki.
She also explained that Advantage has a desk at the airport terminal but that its cars are in an off-airport lot. The company can describe itself technically as an on-airport operation, but I would have a 15-minute van ride from the Phoenix terminal to my car.
Thursday afternoon, my itinerary seemed to be in place: Saturday midday flight to Phoenix, rental car pickup, two nights at the Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs, rental car drop-off, flight back on Monday evening.
When I called a couple of travel agents to see how long it would take them to match my deal (less than 10 minutes), both pointed out that the resort actually had rooms for $169 if I had an auto club card. I did.
The Travelocity Web site never mentioned the auto club rate and had no mechanism for rebooking. So I called a Travelocity operator (the site lists a toll-free number) and asked for the $169 rate. (Again, I didn't say I was a reporter.) By now we were inside the resort's 72-hour cancellation penalty deadline, so things could have gotten ugly. But the Travelocity agent and the hotel agreed to waive the penalty and rebook me at the better rate. Next time I want to pull a weekend together quickly with unfamiliar lodgings, I might grab an Internet discount airfare, then let a travel agent do the rest.