Web Walk: Create a holiday at online agency

We stand on the threshold of what passes, in these days of La Nina, for a brand-new summer - so let's get out of here! Surely there's some nook or cranny of the earth where it's neither flooding nor blowing a gale.

Some weeks ago, in the travel section of this newspaper, Yvonne van Dongen attempted a comparison between a package holiday bought through a travel agent and the same holiday purchased online.

She was investigating rumours that you can save hundreds of dollars by side-stepping traditional travel-brokers and dealing direct with suppliers via the Internet.

Her conclusion: you can't.

"The fact is," she wrote, "that it's jolly hard to get travel costings and book your holiday on the Net from New Zealand… "

This, of course, was like a red rag to the IT editor. More in anger than in sorrow, he demanded that I stamp out this cyber-heresy forthwith.

Where's a good dose of the 'flu when you need one? Even the computer refused to co-operate, withstanding all my attempts to crash it. So this week there's nothing for it but to roll up my cyber-sleeves and plunge back into the complex world of fare-construction, IATA, and bums on seats.

I'm glad to say - discretion being the better part of just about everything - that they're both right. Or rather, she was right then, he is right now.

For since she wrote her story, a potent new booking system has premiered on the New Zealand Web.

To find one of the fabled, sun-drenched spots referred to in the first paragraph, and to get there as cheaply as possible using nothing but your own computer and nose for a bargain, visit the Airline Travel Centre at www.nztravel.co.nz, the first site in New Zealand powered by Amadeus.

Many agents, sensing in the growing popularity of online travel facilities a serious threat to their existing distribution networks - to their existence itself - have made only half-hearted feints in the direction of the Internet. It's to the credit of the Premium Group's John Black that he's embracing the Web with the born-again enthusiasm of a Bill Gates.

The Amadeus system is a miracle of travel empowerment. Locals can now make global do-it-yourself reservations for air travel, hotels and rental cars, complete with automatic e-ticketing where the facility exists.

First, create your Traveller Profile - contacts, payment details and so on - so that Amadeus can tuck it away and fill out your documents for you, now and in future [you can update it if necessary].

Then the fun part - investigating where to go and how to get there with the help of a multitude of drop-down boxes. Tip: when chasing the best fare, try different flight combinations - the cheapest rate may not be available on all flights.

Amadeus requires the use of airline and airport codes, but it will change a plain-English entry for you, or offer you choices among different cities of the same name or different airports within a single city.

Alternatively, there's a […] box, which let's you discover the code for yourself, and this is fatal for easily distractable natures like mine. Where I could recall only a few top-of-mind carriers, I found literally hundreds of boutique airlines.

What, for example, is Aerosweet [VV]? It sounds like a middle-of-the-road pop group. Carnival Airlines [KW] must be fun, pilots with red plastic noses and flight attendants in body-paint - certainly more promising than Missionary Aviation [FS], which suggests a somewhat austere approach to in-flight service.

When I tore myself away, it was to choose a hotel and book a rental car that dovetailed with my travel plans. Again, the drop-down boxes were a godsend. Tip: try different combinations of dates and times to get the best results - you are comparison shopping, after all.

Bear in mind, though, that the Amadeus system will only accept reservations for between 96 hours and 10 months from now. Absconding company directors, therefore, may still prefer to stow away aboard a freighter in the usual manner.

But most important of all, remember that the information you're given by Amadeus is exactly the same as that from which ordinary travel-agents construct their fares and packages.

Yvonne van Dongen will henceforth be able pit her wits against theirs in the battle of the travel dollar.

BOOKMARKS

MOST IMPROVING: net_World - Internet Studies@Curtin

"Study the Internet: be part of the future!" This clarion call rings out from Australia's Curtin University of Technology, offering two online degrees ["a richly contextualised, critically aware understanding of the growth, uses and application of the Internet"] for graduates in other disciplines. Enrolling for Semester 1, 1999.

Advisory: so what's this Internet business all about, anyway?
www.curtin.edu.au/learn/unit/networld

POLITEST: Netiquette

The binary niceties, from Core Rules ["Respect other people's time and bandwidth"] through Business Netiquette [the strategy and tactics of email], the Art of Flaming [more gore than enough], and Love & Sex in Cyberspace [the do's and don'ts of disembodied desire].

Advisory: if you're new in town, check it out.
www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html

petersinclair@email.com