At some point or the other, we all need to travel – be it for business, a visit to the home town, a pilgrimage, a honeymoon or just a weekend getaway. Sooner, we have to use those trains, planes and assorted automobiles.

And numbers seem to keep growing - domestic trips, recorded at 368 million in 2004 by the Ministry of Tourism, are expected to cross 500 million this year. Outbound tourism is expected to cross 15 million, second only to China!

Fortunately, we don't live in the times when booking tickets is a tedious, long drawn process - taking time off from work, spending half a day or more in queues (equipped with water, snacks and a whole lot of patience), putting up with touts, bribes and long waiting lists. Today, we can just log on to the great www and be done with it in a matter of minutes.

However, while we are pampered with a plethora of choices, these are accompanied by a plethora of questions. Am I getting the best price? Which is a good site? Should I have looked into that great bargain price ad? I don't want to end up being a data theft statistic - is my transaction secure?

"E-commerce is still a relatively new concept, and there is still a lot of trepidation among customers when it comes to shopping online," agrees cleartrip.com Founder and COO, Stuart Crighton. 

Getting Choosy

To begin with, let's look at the dos and don'ts of choosing a web site. Sure, there are innumerable sites on the web offering online ticket booking facilities. Unless you are particular about with only one or two favourite carriers, it makes more sense to use known and accredited sites like yatra.com, makemytrip.com and travelguru.com, since they offer ticketing across all carriers, in addition to offering better price ranges and innovative schemes across carriers, thanks to their tie-ups with most airlines.

Basically, a web site that offers a comprehensive choice of airlines and flights, transparency and integrity of prices (being upfront about taxes), besides simplicity and ease of navigation and location of information are key features to look for in a good web site.

Get 'Charged' Up about 'Taxing' Stuff

Bear in mind that fares advertised on web sites are basic fares, exclusive of taxes. Further clicking will offer a complete break-up of fare calculation, which also includes taxes.

For domestic sectors, one may generally expect one-way airfare tickets to have taxes around Rs 1,200-1,300. Taxes generally include Passenger Service Fees (PSF), airport taxes and fuel surcharges, where PSF is fixed but fuel surcharges vary, and are collected at the airport by the airline. There may also be delivery and service charges involved.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should book tickets at any price. Offers may vary from portal to portal, so it would be well worth your while to search and compare online. Using the cheapest fare finder, you can find out which flights, on which dates have the cheapest fares, and plan your trip accordingly.

Cleartrip has launched the cleartrip calendar, where customers can search airfares across eight airlines for any sector and see flights available for an entire month with a single click, informs Crighton. 

Also, do take a moment to go through the fare rules mentioned besides the fare – these define refunding, cancellation and rebooking terms that the ticket entails.