Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for July 18, 1999
Transcript:
Fred: Spent 72 hours online finding the rock-bottom vacation airfare, only to sit next to a man on the plane who got his for $10 less with one phone call. Began shrieking on the runway. Has been banned from air travel. Jill: Survived cursor lock-up and 72 airfare tracking error messages. Dozed off while waiting for web page art to load, smashed nose on keyboard, got disconnected and had to start all over. Cathy: Logged on. Typed "cheap fares" in search window. 2,998,643 choices popped up. Logged off. Tom: Used five different search engines to visit 190 different travel sites. Became so disoriented in a cyber-auction he bought snorkel gear and 48 salt-and-pepper shakers. Fran: Signed up for e-mail fare updates from 20 sites. Received 5,300 e-mailes the first week. Is spending vacation writing irate letters. Bob: Convinced his family it was worth it to wait for the "last minute" ticket sell-offs that airline web sites offer on Wednesday for travel on Friday. Got $99 tickets. "Last minute" hotel rates at same destination were $400 per night. Cheap fares! Really cheap fares! Cheapest fares! Cheaper than the cheapest fares! The many faces of Summer. The internet: Putting the power back in the hands of the people.