The internet has made searching for and booking travel easier than ever. There are hundreds of sites to search, but nobody has time to sift through all of them. In this episode of The 5, Rich DeMuro takes a look at sites for finding a flight. Learn how these sites can do the heavy lifting for you by searching multiple airline and travel websites simultaneously, they can uncover the best travel options and deals. http://techvi.com/shows/the-5/2009/08/five-sites-to-find-a-flight/ SHOW SCRIPT: HEY THERE I’M RICH DEMURO AND WELCOME TO ANOTHER EDITION OF THE 5! THIS TIME AROUND, WE’RE TAKING A LOOK AT 5 SITES FOR FINDING A FLIGHT. EXPEDIA AND TRAVELOCITY WILL GET THE JOB DONE, BUT THESE SITES GO A STEP FURTHER. SEARCH ‘EM AND YOU’LL HAVE MORE AIRFARE INFO AT YOUR FINGERTIPS FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY – CAN I HAVE AN UPGRADE! ((NUMBER 1)) FIRST UP ON OUR LIST – A SITE THAT BILLS ITSELF AS THE WORLD’S MOST COMPREHENSIVE TRAVEL SEARCH ENGINE. MOBISSIMO SEARCHES MORE INTERNATIONAL CARRIERS AND SITES THAN THE COMPETITION. THE SITE WITH THE FUNNY NAME SEARCHES 157 DIFFERENT SUPPLIERS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD TO FIND YOU A FLIGHT… THAT MEANS BETTER CHANCES OF FINDING A GREAT DEAL TO AN INTERNATIONAL CITY. MOBISSIMO ALSO PRIDES ITSELF ON REAL-TIME PRICING INFORMATION – MEANING WHEN YOU SEARCH ON THE SITE IT’S EXACTLY THE SAME RESULTS YOU’D GET ON A DIRECT WEBSITE. WE DID A TEST FLIGHT SEARCH FROM LAX TO JFK – IT CAME IN AT $289.20 ON AMERICAN. ((NUMBER 2)) NEXT UP – A SITE THAT LETS YOU TAKE A MORE RANDOM APPROACH TO FINDING YOUR NEXT DESTINATION. ON SKYSCANNER – YOUR SEARCH CAN BE AS WIDE-OPEN AS THE WORLD. THAT’S BECAUSE THE SITE LETS YOU SEARCH IN FLEXIBLE TERMS. YOU CAN START WITH THE DATES YOU’D LIKE TO TRAVEL, OR JUST THE AIRPORT YOU WANT TO TAKE-OFF FROM. SKYSCANNER DOES THE REST – LETTING YOU NARROW DOWN YOUR CHOICES BY DESTINATION, PRICE OR DATES. OF COURSE YOU CAN DO A STANDARD SEARCH TOO – OUR TEST SEARCH TURNED UP A DELTA FLIGHT FOR $319 INCLUDING TAX. ((WORTH MENTION)) WORTH A MENTION IN OUR LOOK AT 5 SITES FOR FINDING A FLIGHT… CFARES. IT’S A WEBSITE THAT SAYS IT WILL FIND LOWER AIRFARES THAN OTHER SITES 95 PERCENT OF THE TIME! CFARES OFFERS A PLATINUM MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM. FOR 50 BUCKS A YEAR, YOU’LL GET A CASH BACK REBATE ON CERTAIN FLIGHTS. OUR TEST FLIGHT NETTED A $319 FLIGHT ON VIRGIN AMERICA… $306 AFTER REBATE. ((NUMBER 3)) THIRD STOP ON OUR LIST… THE SITE THAT HELPS YOU TO GO IN STYLE! FLY.COM MAKES SURE YOU DON’T MISS ANY FARES THAT COULD GET YOU A GREAT DEAL ON A PREMIUM SEAT. FLY.COM IS FROM THE SAME PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT US TRAVELZOO – THE WEEKLY TOP 20 DEAL LIST. IT’S ONE OF THE FEW TRAVEL SEARCH SITES THAT DISPLAYS PREMIUM FARES RIGHT ALONGSIDE YOUR STANDARD ECONOMY PRICES. THAT WAY YOU NEVER MISS A GOOD UPGRADE DEAL. THE SITE ALSO FEATURES A “WHY ME” INFO BOX WITH TIDBITS ON IN-FLIGHT AMENITIES. OUR SEARCH REVEALED A $289 AMERICAN FLIGHT…2209 FOR A PREMIUM SEAT. ((NUMBER 4)) UP NEXT ON OUR LIST IS A SITE THAT TRACKS OVER A BILLION AIRFARES DAILY TO PREDICT WHEN PRICES MIGHT GO UP OR DOWN. BING TRAVEL AIMS TO LET YOU WHEN TO BUY, AND WHEN TO WAIT. THE SITE STARTED OUT AS FARECAST, THEN MICROSOFT BOUGHT AND RE-BRANDED IT WITH THE LIVE SEARCH AND NOW BING NAME. THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THE SITE HAS STAYED THE SAME. NOT ONLY CAN YOU GET A LIST OF THE BEST AIRLINE TICKET DEALS FROM YOUR HOME AIRPORT… AN ARROW NEXT TO YOUR SEARCH RESULTS LETS YOU KNOW IF IT’S THE RIGHT TIME TO BUY. THAT $289 AMERICAN FLIGHT SHOWED UP AGAIN IN OUR TEST SEARCH… BUT SO DID AN ARROW URGING US TO WAIT… THE 7-DAY PRICE PREDICTOR WAS 79 PERCENT CONFIDENT FARES WOULD DROP OR HOLD STEADY. ((NUMBER 5)) FINALLY ON OUR LIST OF 5 SITES FOR FINDING A FLIGHT… AN ENGINE THAT SHARES ITS NAME WITH A LIGHTWEIGHT CANOE. KAYAK WAS STARTED BY FOUNDERS OF

SOME BIG NAME TRAVEL SITES IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE THE PROCESS BETTER. KAYAK SEARCHES HUNDREDS OF TRAVEL WEBSITES ALL AT ONCE – DELIVERING RESULTS THAT ARE SIMPLE TO SLICE AND DICE. YOU CAN NARROW BY AIRLINE ALLIANCES, FLIGHT QUALITY, AIRCRAFT TYPE, LAYOVER TIME AND EVEN GET A PEEK AT THE SITES KAYAK SEARCHED. AN ESPECIALLY HANDY FEATURE WILL CALCULATE AND ADD IN ANY BAGGAGE FEES. OUR CHEAPEST $289 AMERICAN TEST SEARCH FLIGHT BECAME A MORE REALISTIC $319 WHEN WE ADDED A CHECKED BAG. KAYAK RECENTLY PURCHASED COMPETITOR SIDESTEP. THERE YOU HAVE IT… 5 SITES FOR FINDING A FLIGHT… FUN PLACES TO GO WHEN YOU WANT TO GO SOMEWHERE. I’M RICH DEMURO… SEE YOU NEXT TIME ON THE 5.

Also check out Airline-Booking.com for awesome Cabo San Lucas Travel Deals!

Duration : 0:3:54

Technorati Tags: airline, bing, cfares, demuro, engines, farecast, flight, fly.com, kayak, mobissimo, rich, search, sidestep, sites, skyscanner, techvi, travel, travelzoo

I would like to travel Taiwan sometime, but wonder if it possible to cut hotel and flight budget.
Can anyone give me information abuot cheap hotel, flight and where is good place to go?
If anyone can give some websites for forums to get more information will be perfect.

You can try at http://www.forumosa.com which is probably the largest english forum discussing Taiwan living and issues as well as some travel stuff.

You can try http://www.eztravel.com and see if you can purchase any tickets etc.

If you want some good information about places to go and things to do: check out http://www.taiwanfun.com and look around at each location.

You can try your luck at lonelyplanet.com but I think you will get better info here or at forumosa.com.

some suggestions to start out your search:

Taipei 101, (Taipei)

National Palace Museum, (Taipei)

Taipei zoo, (Taipei)

Yangmingshan National Park, (Taipei) *good view of some steam vents from the volcano, and many walking trails with pretty flowers all year.

Jhi-Bei Mountain Village (between Taipei and Ilan)
*an interesting mountainside village that has a great view of the ocean. Small windy walking streets. Parking is hell for cars, bus this one if possible. Lots of mini lanes and teahouses and it was a former gold mining town. You can see the tailings and nastiness still in the water down the road where the mine shafts were. The town is nice but is pretty steeply built. That it has survived so many earthquakes, typhoons is actually quite a feat in itself!

Bei-Tou Hot Springs, (Taipei)

Shr-Lin Night Market (Taipei) *try the street food. Yum!

Taroko Gorge (Hualien) *rent a scooter if you are brave and travelling with 2p or alone. take a small 10 person or less bus if you arent. Or share the cost of renting a car with some other travellers for BEST experience. The BIG 30p+ buses are a problem on the tiny roads here in my opinion, and the roads are very sketchy in parts. But it is amazing.

Sun Moon Lake (Nantou) *on a weekday. Don’t go on weekends unless you can handle crowds.
Kenting National Park and Beach areas. *also better on weekdays. Weekends are ugly crowds.

for other answers check:
http://www.taiwanfun.com
http://forumosa.com

Personally I think you will find Taipei (for modern development and an overall view of what western Taiwan looks like..) and Hualien (for natural beauty in the inner canyon and mountain ranges of the Pacific Rim) to be the best parts of your tour in Taiwan.

The Central MRT station is arguably a good tourist landmark as well.

I also heard about people being forced to give their Facebook-id: the policemen at the airport will note all your Facebook-friends and will control every message posted on your Facebook.

At the moment violence is not really a danger to the people, but the regime wants to control everybody in another way. If you like your freedom, don’t take the risk in travelling to Iran. Wait till things get better.

The universe is considered able to borrow energy, leading to virtual particle creation, but I have not heard of Particles borrowing energy, especially from the future.

"Particles affecting each other without a medium between them" is referring to quantum entanglement, but I’m afraid I don’t really know enough about that to clarify it.

So as a conclusion, I don’t believe that these theories taken together could explain any form of precognition.

Is there a site where you can get info on concerts/tours where more than one band is playing?
Thanks!

Bands often play at several festivals in addition to their regular tour schedule, most of the festivals have websites of their own, you could check those or on the myspace or facebook pages for the bands you are interested in.

Here are some more general sites to get you started:

http://www.clubplanet.com/articles/2118/summer-music-festivals-guide

http://www.festivalfinder.com/

But the underlying issue is that the agent never alerted him about the use of her personal miles.

"If you mean the air miles used to purchase your friend’s plane ticket originally belong to the travel agent, yes it is allowed. For many airlines, the dirt cheap air tickets do not earn air miles too, not every ticket is entitled to air miles. For travel agents, using their own air miles to book a ticket for a customer at a low price is one of their ways to make a profit and there is nothing wrong with it."

This is completely wrong. By taking money and then using his or her miles to book the ticket, the travel agent is selling awards, which is explicitly in violation of the terms and conditions of nearly every single frequent flier program operating throughout the world today. Not only is this practice bad for the seller — the airline may choose a number of penalties for the account holder, including the forfeiture of miles or the closure of the account altogether — but the buyer of the ticket can be penalized as well.

The airline, under the terms of the frequent flier program, usually has the right to terminate the award ticket if they determine that it has been sold in violation of the program’s rules. This means that your friend, if it’s discovered that he purchased an award ticket, may either not get to go on his trip at all, or if they discover it when he’s trying to come home, he may be forced to buy a walkup one-way ticket back home, which could be extremely expensive.

(If either of these things occur, then your friend will only have recourse against the travel agent in trying to get his money back — the airline’s terms are clear that the ticket can be unilaterally cancelled.)

It doesn’t matter whether the ticket would or would not have earned miles based on the fare code — when a person buys a ticket from a travel agent, I venture that they’d have a reasonable expectation that they were buying a revenue ticket, and not just buying an award that runs a risk of being cancelled from under them if the airline questions where the award came from. For that reason, I’d highly suggest that your friend speak to this agent and ask for a refund — barring that, I’d personally consider filing a chargeback with the credit card company, if a card was used, based on misrepresenation of the item purchased.

Ian.