SmarterTravel.com
www.smartertravel.com
or www.smarterliving.com
Site Features:
Booking engine for trains. Rail schedule, Frequent flier loyalty
programs.
Site Report:
SmarterTravel.comSmarterTravel.com (formerly known as SmarterLiving.com)
is a venerable site that has been aggregating and creating content
for the online travel consumer. Unlike most of the sites that you'll
read about on travelsites, this site doesn't sell travel. Instead, it tells you where you should buy it.
Now we don't often ask you to
stop reading our site report, but in this case, we're going to
make an exception. If you're not already a subscriber to
their email lists, go to the website RIGHT NOW and Subscribe to SmarterTravel.com's FREE email travel newsletters for current travel savings!
The site's editorial staff feels that selling tickets or hotel rooms would compromise their objectivity on reviewing these same sites -- so they don't do it. Similar to offline companies like the New York Times, SmarterTravel fosters advertising relationships with companies. Because of the quality of the content and the leads that this site can generate, major travel companies come calling. In fact, a quick look on the site today shows ads from Cheaptickets, Hotwire, Hotels.com, and Priceline.
The Editorial staff at SmarterTravel.com are travelers themselves. So you can be sure that they're going to scour the net to find you the best deals, from a new Independence Air fare to a site59 package that will simply blow you away.
So it's pretty clear that the Travelsites Editors think you should use this site.
So what, exactly, should you do when you're there?
First, look to the content designed for you. If you're a frequent flier, a traveling senior or even a college student on your gap year, the team at SmarterTravel has built areas for you to peruse. And the information is comprehensive from the top senior citizen tour operators to the newest ways to earn elite status on certain airlines.
Then use the handy toolsets they've designed.
Booking buddy is the newest way to compare pricing across multiple supplier and OTA sites. Simply enter your itinerary and click the buttons on the booking buddy display to return all the fares from a number of sources. The more places you check, the better your chances of getting the fare you want!
Or you can try TripMania. SmarterTravel has built a site that you can use to find the latest deals from partners like American Airlines, Travelocity cruises, and the usual cast of online travel agencies.
And you should definitely subscribe to the emails at SmarterTravel. The Travelsites Editors subscribe to a few lists for airline fares, but there's only one that we wait for each week -- the one from SmarterTravel. This site has done all the heavy lifting for you. They've taken all the airline fare lists and arranged the content by market. You subscribe to the list by telling them what airports you would fly out of... You can then get the information that pertains to the flights you would take, not the random dog flights that airlines put in those e-saver lists.
One hint: Make sure that you subscribe to the lists for several airports -- the smaller airports may have big bargains!
We've found some real bargains by flying Southwest out of Greene Airport in Providence (and before SmarterTravel we didn't even know that they flew out of that airport).
So our verdict?
Surf over and give SmarterTravel a shot.
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