Many people have used or heard of travel websites when planning a vacation or business travel. We show you how to get the most out of them and when not to use them.

1. Start with Expedia.com or Orbitz to get an idea of the cost of your flight, hotel, car rental or cruise. With Expedia and Orbitz, you will know the prices and the names of the airline, hotel and car rental company before you make your purchase,
2. Record the information provided. Especially make note of all prices and whether the flight is a jet or propeller plan, the number of stops, the hotel rating (number of stars) and size of car,
3. Then do the same thing with Hotwired.com. With this service, you will be able see the price of flight, hotel and car rental before you actually purchase it. However, you will not know the name of the airline or your flight times, hotel, or car rental agency. Hotwire claims to use companies we are all familiar with.

Hotwire gives you 1 hour to go ahead with the purchase. If you don't do so, you can't submit another search with the same criteria for 48 hours. Once you purchase, however, there are no refunds, or transfers, etc.

If you have maximum flexibility and want to go for even larger discounts, definitely consider Priceline.com. The service does not allow you to specify the time of day of your flight. You will leave and arrive in the same day usually.

Unlike Expedia and Hotwire, Priceline.com requires you to state how much you want to pay for a flight, hotel, cruise or car rental. That has changed in the last couple of years though. If you have researched these using Expedia, Hotwire or other resources, you should be able to do this easily. You won't know the name of airline, hotel or car rental until your offer is accepted. This happens within minutes and you can not change your mind.

If your offer is accepted, Priceline.com automatically books the flight, cruise, hotel room or car rental with your credit card. For this reason, do not submit a price offer unless you are ready to accept.

What service is best for me?
Expedia.com can be used to book all of your travel needs with complete certainty. You can also earn bonus miles. The other services don't allow you to do this.

You can change your tickets and get a refund if you wish. Of course, there are service fees if you do this. Expedia issues electronic tickets. You will pay extra if you want paper tickets.

Use Expedia.com and Orbitz to get an idea of the prices and quality of services. If you feel that you have a good price and like the flights, hotel, car rental, etc., we recommend that you book.

If you have some flexibility and want to save some money, try Hotwire. We recently compared Expedia and Hotwire for a round trip flight from Wash DC to New York City 7 days before we wanted to go. Hotwire's fare of $231 was 27 percent cheaper than Expedia's at $315. So if we didn't have to be in Manhattan at a particular time, we probably would book with Hotwire.

If we really wanted to save money, we might even submit an offer of $175 to Priceline.com. If they accepted our offer that would be fine. If not, we would have some evidence that Hotwire's price was very good.
Hotels and car rentals work the same way. However, you don't have to be concerned with check in at hotels since this is pretty standard (afternoon check in). The same is generally true with Priceline.

When to use a Travel Agent
Travel agents are your best bet under the followinig conditions:

If you are planning a trip for a large group or family (more than 5
people ),

• People in your group have special
  dietary requirements
• People in your group are coming from or returning to different cities, and
• You need or want tol be able to go to a real live person if you have to.

Even if you go to a travel agent, you can still use the Internet to get an idea of the costs of flights and hotels and bring them up to your travel agent.