 New guide explains best way to travel to paradise July 16, 2003 - Maria Downey Anchorage, Alaska - "Anytime that an airline says it's a great thing, I'll bet you it's a bad thing for the consumer," said Scott McMurren, of Alaska Travelgram. Some call Scott McMurren Alaska's travel guru. He's also a colorful consultant, who can tell you how to get from Alaska to paradise in the best and cheapest way. But now the man McMurren refers to as the real travel guru is in town promoting his new Internet travel guide. "It's 570 pages, there's over 3,000 Websites in there on how to find the lowest deal, from airfares to hotels to cars to accruing the most miles," said John Discala, also known as Johnny Jet. Discala's new guide is called "You Are Here: Traveling with JohnnyJet.com." "No matter what you're looking for, from traveling with your family to senior travel, to guide books, all kinds of information on international countries, domestic," Johnny Jet said. Discala is best known for his international Web site, known as a complete resource for travelers, which features 5,000 Web sites. "One of the best things is that now it's free, so you could actually go Frommer's Web site or Lonely Planets or 10,000 other Web sites that have all kinds of information," Discala said. "The thing is you just have to find out which ones are legit." And a warning about what's not legit from someone who knows. "There are Web sites that have a lot scams out there," Discala said. "You just have to be careful of Web sites offering free trips. If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is too good to be true, so stay away from those." But check out the dozens of legitimate sites that offer quality travel options at the best price. The key message from the Web site and guide is to research. "That you need to shop around for the lowest fare," Discala said. "You just can't go to one site and expect to get greatest deal because one day Expedia might have lowest price, the next Travelocity, an hour later Orbitz. There's hundreds of sites that you can check." And even then, Discala says consumers need to compare the best with the best. "One of best things I do to save money, especially on hotels and car rental, is use Priceline.com and Hotwire.com," he said. "But what you do is you research. You use a site called BiddingForTravel.com and it tells you all the secrets on those Web sites. Like Priceline will tell you, 'You know what? You need to bid $200 for this hotel.' Don't listen to that. You go to this site and you'll find out what other people are bidding, and sometimes it's $40, so I've gotten four-star hotels for really inexpensive." All this expertise is now at your fingertips in Johnny Jet's new book. "It really is like an encyclopedia for travel." And his Web site. Those will provide some answers for confused consumers who want to travel, but need some help along the way.
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