premium savings Looking for low-cost business class fares? Cheapflights (www.cheapflights.com), a search sight for air fare bargains that started in the U.K. and entered the U.S. market last year, has added a new area to its Web site where you can search for the lowest business class fares in your preferred city-pair. The site scans not just published fares but also negotiated rates offered by consolidators, other Web sites and travel companies that cut their own net-fare deals with airlines. Cheapflights doesn't sell tickets itself but tries to bring together buyers and sellers.
secure data Corporate travelers who need to make sure their data transmissions from the road are protected and private can use a new Web site, www.stsn.com, a cooperative venture between the Mobile Travel Guide and STSN, a provider of secure broadband services. At the site, you can search for and book a hotel that guarantees to offer secure high-speed Internet access or secure broadband, wired or wireless. "This is the first online booking engine that allows business travelers to identify and select their preferred hotels based on whether or not the property offers a secure network," a spokesman said.
dining out If you need a quality restaurant to entertain a client, check out Distinguished Restaurants of North America at www.dirona.com. The 14-year-old organization publishes a guidebook listing recommended restaurants that win its award of excellence, based on the reports of its own anonymous inspection teams that check out everything from the quality of the food to the décor and service. The Web site lists the selected restaurants-e.g., there are five in Denver, 22 in Chicago and 56 in New York—and provides links to their Web sites and, in some cases, to their online reservations desk.
online meetings Don't have time to travel? Intranets.com (www.intranets.com) has upgraded its Web and audio conferencing capabilities to provide users with video conferencing via Web cam; conference recording and playback for both the on-screen and phone portion of virtual meetings; and optional SSL encryption for high-security Web meetings. The company said users-mainly small to midsized businesses-can now "easily share applications, files, even their computer's entire desktop, with meeting participants in real-time."
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