These days, I am very used to booking my travel arrangement online, I just love a fair price and not just after the cheapest price*. Armed only a tabbed browsing enabled browser (now available on IE 7) and a search engine, I combed the 7 seas web server farms for the right deals and customers reviews. Generally, I follow my dad's 3 shops procurement rule and always evaluate the offerings from at least 3 providers.

As a member of Krisflyer (Singapore Airlines Frequent Flyer program), I have a preference for Star Alliance partners and this time I picked US Airways (actually America West, but they have merged). Reviewed the flight + hotel packages from US Airways, Travelocity, Hotwire and Expedia and decided to go for the package offered by Expedia.

US Airways vacation site - no packages available on the days I want to travel. Little, not very useful descriptions about their partner hotels.

Travelocity (Last minute Deals) - Lots of exclusions, a simple grand total wasn't easy presented. In my book, the harder you try to be hide the actual cost, the less likely I want to shop with you.

Hotwire - Great for hotels but I prefer to know the carrier I'm flying with. Hotwire will not reveal your carrier until payment had been made. Plus the pricing ain't as competitive as Expedia. What's most interesting to note, their hotel only packages have different pricing if you use different web browsers with the identical criteria! See it for yourself!

Expedia - Easy to navigate booking and comparison interface, well priced packages, useful and competitive priced optional items. Best part of all, the amount presented has all the taxes included, facilitating easy comparisons. Here's my credit details ... SOLD ... Tomorrow Vegas beckons!

* because the cheapest prices usually comes with tiniest fine-print, even a 27 year old will find it hard to read and understand