Once the plane leaves the gate, any unsold seats aren't going to make the airline any money. Thanks to the Web, suppliers can offer last-minute deals on the unused inventory, so that they can fill the remaining seats or hotel rooms. When Carol Boyd, an Internet consultant in Covington, Ky., had to commute from Cincinnati to Hartford, Conn., on most weekends last year, she looked everywhere for the best deal. Boyd's success is no fluke. She took time to study all of her options, and she monitored the rise and fall of ticket prices to get a sense of when the best deals typically become available.
Airlines determine when demand is highest and lowest and price tickets accordingly.
The sites aren't just good for comparison-shopping, but they're also a great place to buy travel. The prices are often far better than you'd get through a travel agent. He ought to know. Horowitz is a regular reader of an electronic newsletter published by Smarter Living, which sends a weekly dispatch of low fares to his e-mail account. Newsletters and get a weekly list.