Airline Web sites are immensely helpful tools when booking a ticket. Most U.S. airlines now offer their lowest fares (except for consolidator fares such as those found on Hotwire and Priceline) on their Web sites. This section lists airline Web sites and notes about each one to make them as useful as possible.

AirTran Airways: http://airtran.com/Home.aspx
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Notes: AirTran offers an easy-to-use flexible date search mechanism on its Web site. This is a terrific tool, and if you have flexibility in your travel plans, use this tool. You can find the flexible date search tool in the book a flight box at the center of AirTran’s home page.

Alaska Airlines: http://www.alaskaair.com/
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Notes: Alaska offers a terrific Web Check-In feature, accessible directly from the home page since they offer designated areas for those who checked-in online at certain airports where you can check your bag without any line whatsoever. These Web Bag Drop locations can be found at some of the carrier’s most served airports including Anchorage, Seattle/Tacoma, Portland, and San Francisco.

Allegiant Air: http://allegiantair.com/
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Notes: Allegiant makes most of its money selling vacation packages, and many of Allegiant’s packages offer good values. Consider booking at Allegiant’s Web site before making your package reservations to Las Vegas or Orlando today.

Aloha Airlines: http://alohaair.com/
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Notes: While most airlines let you check-in online, Aloha is one of only a handful to let you check-in from your car. Aloha has a drive-thru check-in service in Honolulu to make your next trip easier.

American Airlines: http://www.aa.com/
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Notes: American offers a neat tool that allows you to check available seats on your flight. If you’re wondering whether you’ll be squished against somebody else or if you’ll get an entire row of seats to yourself, hop on over here.

ATA Airlines: http://www.ata.com
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Notes: If you look at the ATA route map, you’ll notice a whole bunch of cities, but if you look closer at the key in the lower left corner, you’ll see that most of the cities on the map aren’t served by ATA, but rather by Southwest Airlines. These airlines have entered into a code-share agreement, where they sell seats on each other’s flights in order to increase revenue. For example, ATA flies from Honolulu to Oakland, and you could then connect onto a Southwest flight bound for a host of cities.

Continental Airlines: http://www.continental.com/
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Notes: Continental has introduced the Travel Club which anybody can join, but requires a $10 annual membership fee. However, the club gives you a $10 credit to use for Continental flights at continental.com, and for each ticket you buy at continental.com, you get a $5 credit that can be applied towards future Continental ticket purchases at continental.com.

Delta Airlines: http://www.delta.com/home/index.jsp
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Notes: There has been a lot of press recently about Delta Airlines and its labor relations, now that the carrier is operating under bankruptcy. While it’s extremely unlikely that the airline will liquidate, answers to most questions about Delta’s restructuring can be found here.
Delta has a tool that allows you to search weekend travel dates (Thursday-Saturday departures, Sunday-Tuesday returns) for an entire month. This is great if you need to make a weekend journey but have flexibility. On the Delta reservation screen, click the before/after link under the dates, which allows you to access Delta’s Flexible Weekend travel search tool.

Frontier Airlines: http://frontierairlines.com/
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Notes: Check out Frontier’s frequent flyer program: EarlyReturns, which offers free flights beginning at 15,000 miles (versus 25,000 for most major airlines). Using EarlyReturns really does return a free ticket to you earlier.

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Go!: http://www.iflygo.com/
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Notes: Go! has just commenced operations, as of June 9th, so the public will soon judge whether this carrier can compete with Hawaiian and Aloha on the interisland routes. Hopefully the new competition will bring lower fares for island residents and visitors alike.