Plan your business trip: book online
Why: There are two very good reasons to book your travel online. Web-based travel companies offer terrific deals on airfare, hotels, car rentals, and more. Booking online also saves you the time you'd spend contacting each individual service provider for quotes. There are some pitfalls, however. Small businesses should proceed with caution toward the corporate programs offered by sites such as Orbitz and Expedia. Online travel companies have designed special services for larger businesses that employ dozens of traveling employees. As a small-business owner, you may cut a few bucks off your tickets, but you'll end up shelling out the money you saved in registration and processing fees. Consider this option only if you have at least 12 employees who each travel several times per month.

Also worth noting is the fact that though some travel search engines lead you to believe they're searching for the best fares among all the airlines, they may be omitting a few. CheapTickets and Orbitz, for example, do not display results for super-budget-airline Southwest--even if Southwest offers the cheapest fares.

How: Bookmark the biggies (see our list below). As your travel dates approach, do some quick surfing through those sites to see which offers the lowest prices for the particular dates and times you need. If budget carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue service your area, it's worth a quick check to see if they offer a fare that beats what you found with the biggies. Be careful, though: You can sink a lot of time into tweaking, comparing, and second-guessing. Don't spend more than 30 minutes on research to save a few bucks; any longer, and you'll drive yourself nuts (you could probably make up any money saved by billing that time anyway). Also, let the Web sites do the work for you: sign up for automatic "fare watcher" e-mail that informs you when good deals are available.

We went to four of the main online travel sites--Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, and CheapTickets--to plan a hypothetical, five-day business trip from San Francisco to Boston. We found that some of these sites are better at trip planning than others. The table below shows the results of our investigation.

	Travelocity	Expedia	Orbitz	CheapTickets
Lets you search for flight, hotel, and rental car all at once		X	X	X
Lets you search for flight and hotel only	X
Number of search results returned	102	102	54	34
Package price range	$587-$2,166	$672-$2,712	$629-$2,860	$830-$1,881
Lets you sort by price, rating, or other criteria	X	X	X	X
Lets you search specific airlines, hotels, and rental car companies	X	X	X	X
Lets you mix and match parts of different packages		X	X	X
Pros and cons	Gives discount quotes on rental cars but only after searching first for flight and hotel. Offers helpful links for other ground transportation to your chosen hotel.	The most functional and flexible site.	Reports how much you save over typical airfare, hotel, and car rental prices.	Initial search results list only the lowest-price flight and car, though you can click to longer lists of more expensive fares and rates.

If your travel plans are flexible, try Priceline or Hotwire. These sites don't let you pick specific airlines or exact flight times, but they do let you choose quality levels for hotels (one to four stars, usually) and what general time of day you'd like to fly. You may end up with the same flight, hotel room, and car you'd have booked on your own--only for a lot less money.

Plan your business trip: call a travel agent
Why: In today's Web-centric business world, using a human travel agent might seem like making a call on a rotary phone. But don't knock this age-old method of travel arranging. Most of the time, you'll end up with a live person who will help you find great deals, and it won't cost you a dime. Beware calling the airlines directly: some charge a fee--typically between $10 and $15--if you book your ticket with one of their agents over the phone.

How: Ask around for a recommendation or try the people who've relied on this method for years--your parents, for example--to see if they know someone. The American Society of Travel Agents can also point you toward an accredited agent in your area.