No, this isn’t a GQ. I just set up all my traveling for the end of school online. The number I needed to call to get my unused airline ticket portion set up? Found it online. Amtrak tickets? Bought online. Good discount coupons? Found online. Signing up for frequent flyer and frequent rider miles? Did it instantly online. Printing reciepts, checking iteneraries and making seat assignments? Did it all online.
Man, I love the Internet.
Ah but that’s not real travelling.
Back in my day you had to sit in the airport for hours on end waiting for a standby ticket. Of course you wouldn’t know where you would end up going to, but you could always pull out a gun in the airplane and get to Cuba if the propper destination was too depressing.
Before the Internet, we used to travel by beaming from place to place, sort of like Star Trek, only quicker. However, the parts for that technology were needed for game servers, so they had to stop offering it. And, of course, all records of it have been erased from the Internet during the Internet Cleaning Day of 2/29/1992, so no one realizes it was once available.
Of course, this post will also be deleted.
well, you had the telephone. You rang travel agents, or worst! you had to walk to them!
so, you get the phone book, look up the number(s) you need, dial them, talk to the people on the other line (for a looooong time).
You only got coupons if you were
a) over 80
b) had more than 6 kids.
There were no such things as frequent flyer programmes. You were happy you were allowed on the plane in the first place.
The lady who reserved your ticket (over the phone) picked your seat (yep, and the smoking section, too, as you could stil smoke in planes, then). After that, you had to go down there and pay for it, and that’s when you were gven your tickets and itinerary.
Yup. The world sure wasn’t for lazy people…
I used my broom. But Orbitz is cheaper than paying the insurance on the broom - with those damn birds flying into the bristles, it seems to skyrocket every year.
Besides, they give me peanuts on airplanes.
Ava
Hm. I got out a road atlas and a ruler, plotted out my course, figured out the approximate travel time and mileage, packed my car and left.
It wasn’t that hard. Really.
Travel Agents. We used the one at the local bank in the 70’s and 80’s. Go in, sit down, ask them to look up all the locations/prices/times on the SABRE system, and then they would book it “online” (not www, but still online) and print out the tickets on real paper, then you paid, sometimes even with cash or a paper check!
How do I travel, even with the Internet? Easy: I call my travel agent and have her set things up. She’s already got my preferences on file (aisle seat, frequent flyer number, etc.), so it’s no problem.
She also has my hotel preferences on file, and can often suggest a few good places at some sort of discounted rate. Of course, I always have the option to call and reserve a room myself, but I usually ask her to do it for me. One brief phone call to her, and everything–air tickets, rental car, hotel room, etc.–is done.
If I’m driving myself, I’ll either call ahead to book a room in the place where it looks like I’m going to stop; or I’ll find a clean-looking place, stop, walk in and ask if they have any rooms.
I have used the Internet to book train tickets, but I could just as easily call the railroad. In fact, I have, when the booking server at the railroad’s end isn’t too swift or down for some reason. I’ve called airlines too, when all I’ve needed is a plane ticket. Call far enough in advance, and you’ll get a better price than you would at the last minute; but even when that’s not possible, a phone call takes care of things.
Most travel-related services have toll-free numbers, and they’re usually in whatever local phone book is available. No computer, Internet connection, or even electricity (expect that which the telephone needs) required. Just a phone.
Not denigrating the Internet or what one can do with it, but I find a telephone much more handy when planning travel.
Travel Agents, Pah, in my day there weren’t any travel agents you southern pansy, we had to walk to the embasy and beg to be given visas then we had to wait three weeks at dock for a boat to take us. Kids these days don’t know their born.
For driving trips, we always had the big books from each hotel chain listing all their locations. You just call around and find a location around about where you want. AAA Triptichs instead of internet maps.
For airline tickets, call around to all the various carriers that go out of your airport. All you need is a good rolodex.
I still use Triptiks (although mostly online, nowadays), and my travel agent always gets me better deals than I’ve ever been able to find online.
Ah, you had a boat to take you. You were lucky! Why, in MY day, we had to swim the whole way, or be chained to the oars for years. Uphill. Both ways. But tell that to young people today, and will they believe you? Noooo.
Swim??? You mean you had arms???
Two words…
HORSE and BUGGY.
I had to crawl on my belly like a reptile!
As a former Corporate Travel Agent, I never could understand (and still can’t really) why people think it is easier/faster/cheaper to go on line to book.
Sure, there are deals.
But frankly, $5 - $15 dollars is not a big deal (hotel or car wise, as you take it up the butt in hotel taxes in every major city in the world.And airport service fees for cars and planes just get you in the end as well.) I would rather talk to a human any day of the week, but I am old fashion.
I loved being an agent. My bosses…oye…they were an off broadway play waiting to be scripted It was alot of variety and generally alot of really nice people. Our down time was spend gabbing or wasting company time. My work stayed at work when I left. I took care of my clients and they knew they could trust me. Do I miss the low pay? Right about now the peanuts I earned before are looking like a million dollars.
It is a dying industry.
And it is a shame.
It was loads of fun.
I have yet to book any tickets via the 'net but last time I flew I used it to see how much I could expect to spend. Then I went to a travel agent.
What I wonder is how people downloaded porn before the Internet.
BBS’s covered a few years there.
Every journey begins with a first step.
Sheeesh!!
