Searching the Web can be a frustrating experience – here are a few tips for on-line searching.
l You will find the Web quicker in the morning as the network becomes congested when users in the US wake up and get on-line, so try and visit your favourite Web sites before lunchtime.
l If the Web site you’re trying to access is taking a long time to download, you can open another window by opening the File Menu and clicking on New, or by using CTRL N on your keyboard.
l Instead of using the back arrow to retrace your steps you can view a page from the current session by clicking the Go button on the toolbar (Netscape Navigator) or View (Microsoft Explorer), Go To or the down arrow next to the Back button.
l If using a Search Engine to navigate the Web you’ll get better results if you use more specific search strings. Using a plus sign (+) in front of a word (don’t leave a space) ensures a particular word will appear in all your results. A minus sign (-) ensures a particular word won’t appear.
Description
Global Traveller’s TelMe Web site handles in-house and published fares for worldwide flights on over 600 scheduled airlines and reservations for 40,000 hotels.
In its initial months of operation Global Traveller handled the equivalent of an annual revenue of £1m and is claiming huge growth since a major advertising campaign started in January.
Home page
The Home Page was quick to download. The page is functional and effective, with bright yellow top and left-side margins. The left margin lists the links to all the site features – Personal Profile, Travel Guides, Flight Tracker, Personal E-miles and Insurance. The top margin has sections labelled Welcome, Flight Booking, Hotel Booking and Complete Booking.
Ease of Navigation
The yellow margins are in view at all times. All these sections are labelled in the familiar file-index tabs and provide a well designed list of links. It was always possible to explore these links to third-party information on the Web, while keeping the familiar TelMe navigation margins. Thus moving between booking and information sections is easy, although there is no attempt to integrate the information links within the flight booking or hotel booking process
Searching
The initial form allowed us to specify flight times and determine our flexibility on dates, allowing for the possibility of cheaper fares on alternative dates. The system searches on all airlines, unless a preference is specified.
The number of options to display could be controlled, and the search was prioritised for either time or lowest available fare. The resulting display gave choices clearly laid out with flight sectors and numbers.
The chosen flight was then displayed with excellent detail – flight numbers, aircraft type, flight distance, journey time and price plus tax and final total for the party booked. We were curious to see that for some special fares, a notice is given that the flight for the fare displayed might not be available.
Searching hotels was a similar process, with the functions to specify hotel grades, hotel company, room, bed sizes, and in-room facilities.
Ease of booking
The site allows for booking flights, hotels and travel insurance – via separate transactions. The process of searching and booking a flight or hotel is handled within seven screen displays.
Once a final flight choice has been selected, a check box allowed us to confirm acceptance of any refund restrictions.
Continuing with the booking enabled us to give party names and contact information, as well as confirm possession of valid passport and visa.
A final screen displayed the details and the Purchase Tickets option, when the transaction becomes binding as the availability check is then converted into a firm booking.
Site Security
The booking process is offered on a secure system for flight and hotel bookings, although we did get a warning notice that one of the site’s encryption certificates had expired.
Nice touches
The presence of the contact information throughout the booking process was good. Jargon-free text and a Quick Links set of icons at the top left of every screen added the perfect navigation comfort.
The Complete Booking option is a planned upgrade which will allow users to retrieve bookings for later inspection.
The seller ‘rating’ icon allowed us to look at comments left by other buyers andthe Tell a Friend link in the bidding area very neatly generated a preformatted e-mail with details of the auction – excellent.
Value ofinformation
The site is targeted at the independent traveller and the focus is on the corporate traveller with the Travel Guides providing comprehensive information on business travel, frequent-flyer programmes and on-line magazines.
The Flight Tracker section was very quick to respond to flight status requests over a three-day time band – a useful facility which could be upgraded to send text messages to mobile phones to help the traveller in a hurry.
Would we return to this site in the near future?
Yes, this is a well designed and practical site for Web surfing.
From a traveller’s viewpoint, the e-miles incentive scheme is added encouragement, and from the travel agent’s point of view, there is some justification for bookmarking this site purely for its Travel Guide links.