I like booking travel. I like digging around online, playing with options to find the absolute best deal. I book my own business travel – partially because we’re short on admin support at work, but also because I enjoy it. I started way back in 1998 living in Calgary scoping out the cheapest flights back to Saskatoon for friends’ weddings and such. The best sites back then were expedia.ca and travelocity.ca. Great deals to be had.
Trouble is – I never moved on. I got stuck in that expedia-travelocity rut and became comfortable with them as my travel search destinations. For 8 years.
I found a very cool site today when looking for the cheapest flight between Ottawa and Urumqi. Don’t ask. But *do* check out www.kayak.com. It’s amazing! In the buzz section, enter your home airport, your max price, and see on a map where you can go. In the normal search, click or unclick options, change dates, and see your search results change instantly. I’m sure there’s a ton more to be discovered.
I’m excited. But also a bit worried: I let online travel get away from me. I was left behind by developments in the field, my expedia and travelocity becoming outdated slide rulers.
It makes me wonder – in the years ahead, what else will leave me behind? Especially as we have kids, what doodads will they have that I simply cannot understand?
What’s left you behind? What other whizz-bang gadgets have you found that made you feel this same way?
Kris - http://www.usedottawa.com – as I blindly purchased shelving and other furniture items that EVERYONE has, it simply never occurred to me that people enjoy getting rid of the stuff too…at a fraction of the cost.
My father got his first DVD player last year. His VCR became Expedia and the DVD player has taken it’s place…he vowed never to be the last to jump on a bandwagon again, as far as technology is concerned.
Ordering pizza online. Hello…brilliant. That way, there’s printed proof if they get something wrong (which, in my online experience so far, they haven’t).
Actually…doing anything online. When something comes up and I’m given the choice, I almost always e-mail. It may make me antisocial in the long run…but it’s so convenient!
Ben - Had a terrible experience last night. My girlfriend’s roommate asked me to have a look at her PSP, she had bought a memory card and couldn’t figure out how to get it all set up. Let’s just say things have come a long way from the four button, one direction pad, grey-toned Gameboys of the 90s. I didn’t even know where to start. Managed to find a USB cable to hook up between the system and the computer but hit a roadblock after that. I’ve never really been into computers and their accompanying challenges, and I’m defintely starting to pay the price. Pretty sure those systems are geared to twelve year olds. Sigh.
dread pirate lindsay - i agree with the whole comment on the world of PSP, PSP 2, gamecube, sega genisis 85…whatever they are. i don’t understand them…and i suck at playing them. i grew up with atari and that was all. and it was awesome. you got a joystick and one button to jump or shooot! there was no cofusion what so ever! this ‘new and improved’ video world is too hard to understand and has taken away from the joys of reality and nature. however, after recently starting a new job where i design bikes – i have discovered how much bikes themselved have evolved…cruisers, mountian, road cruisers, dual suspension, hybrid, electric… man its confusing. yet, i encourage all videogamers to get a bike and see the world (esp. if its one of my designs!) !!!!! 😀
mark - dan, you must try to stay on top of all these tech advances, or you’ll end up like the old guy I work with who refers to his computer as his “confuser”, then laughs like a jackass everytime he says it. serenity now.
Gary - sadly, i run into this in my job. it’s my job to support test equipment for wireless phones. The complexity of the wireless standards is mind boggling. I’m thinking of starting a petition to have everyone go back to analog phones. they were a lot simpler; and who doesn’t those old car phones back?