When SABRE, the airline flight lookup and reservation service, first became available through the Web, I remember thinking what an enormous time saver this was going to be. We could now enter our destinations and retrieve dozens of options, complete with fare codes, rules, prices, stopovers, and type of plane. Enchanted by the convenience and control, I spent many hours looking up alternate flights to remote cities around the globe, weighing all the possibilities and costs for a summer vacation. After 2 hours of frustration with my 33.6 kb/s modem, I learned my lesson. Just clicking on the fare code rules for an attractively priced flight can eat many minutes. The airlines have become quite inventive in their pricing strategies, and their rule book resembles an IRS manual. Putting these online for consumers was a great idea, but in my case I would have been better off time- and frustration-wise if I had just picked up the phone and called an experienced travel agent.

As we push Internet access into every home, school, and business on the planet, extolling its many virtues, we are often ignoring this particular aspect of the online world. It can be a time sink, and our own behavior and inclinations help to make it that way. I had a phone right on my desk, for example, and my travel agent's number was right there in my electronic rolodex.