1. Buying Airline Tickets Online vs. Buying Offline Presented by: Carolina Crawford

2. Advantages of Buying Tickets Online ♦Convenience ♦Service ♦Price ♦Choices ♦Speed ♦Accuracy ♦Cancellation Policy

3. Visual Comparison OnlineOffline Service Cheaper PricesYesNo Many ChoicesYesNo SpeedYesNo AccuracyYes More SecurityNoYes Cancellation Policy Charge Yes (Usually)No (Usually)

4. Risks of Buying Online ♦Source not Trustworthy ♦Over-priced Tickets ♦Personal Security ♦Too Much Information Required

5. The Largest Independent Travel Web Sites and their Scores (1- 5) Score Website Expedia5 Travelocity5 Orbitz4 CheapTickets3 Hotwire3 OneTravel.com3 Priceline3 TravelNow.com2

6. Websites’ Evaluation ♦Privacy & Security: Expedia & Travelocity were excellent. Cheap Tickets more confusing. ♦Customer Service: TravelNow.com has no customer service phone numbers listed. ♦Disclosure: Expedia gives an overview of the booking technologies used to list flights that meet your criteria. Answers some key questions on process. ♦Usability: All eight of the websites allow you to specify date, time of day & airports (More Convenient Booking Process), but some websites require you to register first. ♦Content: Expedia, Travelocity, CheapTickets, & Orbitz have useful features, e.g., flight- status tool, which checks on arrivals and departures, and personal profile that stores your preferences. OneTravel & TravelNow lack these features.

7. Thank You!