Frequent Flyer Miles - Tech Companies Score with Travelersies Score with

Contents

Airlines Use Miles to
Better Serve Program Members

Flexibility is Key to New Non-Airline 'Miles' Plans

Tech Companies Score with Travelers
From hip new wireless services to improved airport business centers, technology and frequent flyers are a match made on one of Wall Street's better days.

If you've got the dot-com blues, the techno-savvy travel industry does not feel your pain. While many e-commerce companies are finding customers a rare commodity, those serving travelers are growing. Forrester Research estimates that of the $12.2 billion spent online in 2000, $8 billion was spent by travelers.

Why? Well, says Stacey Spencer, spokesperson for online travel agency Orbitz, "You don't have to feel a plane ticket to buy it. You can see pictures of your hotel room, which is more than you got when you called on the phone." The growth is good news for business travelers itching to use their PDAs to rebook a delayed flight, or check for a hotel room en route. It also means road warriors can expect their every technology need to be taken seriously, including that practically old-fashioned interest in checking e-mail, or printing out a presentation.

"We have something you can wrap your arms around," says Dave Luck, the vice president of marketing for eKiosk, a new generation of Internet workstations. The kiosks offer ten free minutes of advertiser-sponsored Internet use, plus a variety of services including video cameras, Web phones, ports for PDAs and high-speed data ports. If your company registers, you'll be able to reach your own desktop back at the office from an eKiosk workstation. "We've rolled out 922 kiosks. Our network is doubling every two months," says Luck.

If you want to cruise into a mobile office, Laptop Lane has the answer for you. Now located in 18 airports, these cushy full-service private offices with a door include an ergonomically-designed work space, Pentium III desktop, a multi-line phone, a T-1 line, and a combo photocopier and fax machine. Each pod of four to eight offices comes with a live "cyber concierge" who actually knows how to use the equipment. Pay by the minute -- about $39 an hour -- but all your domestic phone calls are free.

If you'd rather "interface" with a PDA or your computer, there are lots of options for you too:

SideStep
www.sidestep.com
Working as a travel intermediary, SideStep has created a browser plug-in that searches the Web sites of more than 90 different travel suppliers. When users request information about airfares, hotel rooms and car rentals, they get a simple rate comparison and -- perhaps best of all -- information about online booking mileage bonuses. When they see a price they like, they click through to the provider's site for booking. The virtual computer reservation system (it doesn't use any of the legacy CRSes such as Apollo or Sabre) is designed to give travelers the utility of full-service sites like Expedia, but the added value of information about mileage incentives offered only to users of travel Web sites.

i-tinerary Travel Solutions
www.i-tinerary.com
It may be the ultimate gal Friday: the mTravel Assistant from i-tinerary Travel Solutions is a real-time intelligent electronic assistant. The free and downloadable service (use it on your PC or PDA) includes schedule integration, automated trip planning driven by appointments, immediate notification of trip delays or cancellations and a dozen more features. Forget those gut-wrenching moments when you're at the ticket counter and your flight's been canceled. The trip repair function informs you of the problem, and using your preferences, rebooks you.

YouPriceIt.com
www.youpriceit.com
They may sell only 1,000 tickets a month, but the five well-seasoned travel agents behind YouPriceIt.com could give you the best of both worlds if you're willing to wait for up to 24 hours to book your flight. The site lets you bid on airline tickets via its Web site, but it's real people who search -- across all airlines, including low-cost carriers -- for your flight. If they can find it for you cheaper than your bid price, you get it for the cheaper price.

Orbitz
www.orbitz.com
Conduct a flight search on Travelocity or Expedia, and you're getting fare info that's maybe a day old. When Orbitz -- owned by several major airlines --launches its fully-loaded site this month, it promises real-time availability for every possible flight. "Nobody else does this," says Orbitz's Stacey Spencer. How? It bypasses the standard computer reservation systems. Spencer dismisses questions that the service might exclude some options. "We'll show every airline, and we won't take marketing dollars for a flight to pop up first." The one drawback: the site won't show Internet-only fares.