Even at times most Internet e-commerce sites were having difficult times and rapidly disappearing, online travel booking sites were sky-rocketing to the orbit. Why? The reason is clear. Online booking sites are convenient. They give consumers more power to control. In the past, booking a flight was was done only by trained travel agents. Today anyone with Internet connection can book a flight with just a few clicks. There is no need to call your agent and no need to pick-up tickets. What is better, there are new promotions on the web almost everyday.

Online booking sites are good places to start searching for your cheap plane tickets. Many leading online booking sites have great fare search engine that scan through many airlines. These search engines conveniently displays your search result form the lowest possible price to the highest. You can compare fares and pick the most convenient itinerary for you with no hassle.

Here are some major online travel booking sites:

Travelocity: Travelocity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, a publicly traded company. Travelocity is based in Southlake, Texas, with additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, and abroad. Travelocity was created in 1996, as a subsidiary of Sabre Holdings. As one of the pioneers of web-based disintermediation, Travelocity.com was the first website that allowed consumers themselves (acting without the help of a travel agent or broker) not only to access Sabre's fare and schedule information, but also to reserve, book, and purchase tickets. In addition to airfares, the site also permits consumers to book hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises, and packaged vacations. Travelocity operates a full-service business agency, Travelocity Business, and comparable websites in Canada, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries, and the United Kingdom. Other brands include lastminute.com, Site59.com, a last-minute travel technology and content provider, World Choice Travel, a travel affiliate marketing program, and Showtickets.com, a tour and ticket broker in Las Vegas.

Expedia: Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is a internet-based travel agency headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, USA. It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, and various attractions and services via the World Wide Web and telephone travel agents. The company serves customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Australia. Founded as a division of Microsoft in October 1996, Expedia was spun off in 1999, and was purchased by USA Networks in 2001. USA Networks changed its name to InterActiveCorp in 2003. InterActiveCorp spun off its travel group of businesses under the Expedia name in August 2005, including Expedia, TripAdvisor, eLong, Hotels.com, and Hotwire.com. Expedia uses Worldspan as their main Computer reservations system, with Pegasus and their own Canadian connectivity company for hotel direct connects as an adjunct for hotels not listed in Worldspan.

Orbitz: Orbitz, Inc. is an Internet travel company headquartered in Chicago. Orbitz constituted the airline industry's response to the rise of online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity, as well as the continued increase in GDS fees, and trailed its major competitors by several years. Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and United Airlines, subsequently joined by American Airlines, invested a combined $145 million to start the project in November 1999. Orbitz.com officially launched in June 2001. On September 29, 2004, Orbitz was acquired for $1.25 billion by New York-based Cendant Corporation. In June 2006, Orbitz, along with all other Cendant travel businesses, was sold to a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, in a deal worth over $4.6 billion to form a new company called Travelport. Travelport includes Orbitz, Cheaptickets.com, ebookers, and other travel reservation website used by consumers. Travelport also owns the Galileo computer reservations system used by airlines and travel agents, Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) wholesale travel business, Octopustravel.com, and other travel related software brands and solutions.
 

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