Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994                   TAG: 9404300006
SECTION: TRAVEL                    PAGE: F6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By BERNIE KOHN KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ON-LINE SERVICE LETS YOU BE YOUR OWN TRAVEL AGENT

Or you got the feeling that an agent wasn't very interested in exploring myriad options for someone who wasn't going to earn them much of a commission.

Now there's another option - an on-line service, soon to be marketed nationally by a Raleigh, N.C., travel agency, that allows even a techno-neophtye to become his own travel agent.

PCTravel, developed by American Travel Corp., allows anyone to buy airline tickets, rent a car or book a cruise with nothing more than a modem-equipped personal computer. It doesn't require special software or a subscription to an on-line service like Prodigy or America Online. Users don't have to know travel industry jargon or computer codes.

PCTravel also doesn't require users to belong to American Airlines' frequent flier program, as does EasySabre, the travel reservations program available through some on-line services.

PCTravel has begun operating. It will be marketed nationally early this month, marketing manager David Lea said.

Anyone with an IBM-compatible PC or Macintosh can access PCTravel by dialing (919) 831-4848 through a modem. That establishes a connection into the Apollo computer reservations system.

PCTravel uses a menu of simple, English-language questions and commands to guide a user through travel transactions. Travelers can book reservations by entering a credit card number. Tickets are delivered the next day by Federal Express, at no extra charge. An ordinary airline reservation can be completed in five to 10 minutes.

PCTravel has its shortcomings.

Using it incurs long-distance phone charges to Raleigh, whereas it costs nothing to use a local travel agent or call an airline.

Also, the service is limited. Hertz is the only car rental company in the system. Hotel reservations, at least for the moment, cannot be made at all.

The advantages, Lea said, are that people can use PCTravel at all hours and explore flight options at will.

Also, PCTravel provides the same live access to Apollo as travel agents have. That can provide travelers a big advantage when they hear about big fare sales.

Instead of calling a travel agent or an airline and being put on hold, if call volume is high, someone can use PCTravel to grab discounted tickets before they are sold out, Lea said.

Also, PCTravel displays all combinations of flights between two chosen cities. That includes itineraries with multiple carriers or odd connections, which can provide big savings.

The service is intended for individuals and small businesses that are not frequent travelers, and who usually call the airlines to make travel plans, Lea said. ``We're not looking for the frequent and corporate travelers because those people probably are already using somebody else,'' Lea said.

American Travel gets a commission for each ticket sold through PCTravel, just as it would if a human agent had sold it. ``Our marginal cost of producing a ticket this way is very modest, so we can afford to book $200 tickets,'' Lea said.

The potential market for PCTravel is huge. American Travel said it found that while more than 30 percent of PCs in use have modems, only 5 percent are tied into an on-line service that offers travel reservations.