Five Websites That Makes Dive Travel Easier

You can argue whether travel is easier now than back in the day, but the process for booking flights, cars and hotel rooms today is definitely better now. Still, with all the websites and apps for travel booking there, it seems like there's too many options to choose from. One of my favorite websites for checking out travel tips and deals before I book dive trips is JoeSentMe.com, written by business travel pro Joe Brancantelli. He recently listed his favorite websites to make travel easier, and I defer to his advice.

To find fare information: Kayak.com. Hopefully, you already know about this super flexible flight finder and fare-compare tool. You can filter prices by number of stops and connections (useful if you're looking for a bargain on international premium-class travel); take-off and landing times; by any combination of carriers you choose; aircraft type; and, most creatively, by an airline's membership in a global alliance.Its layout and displays are clean and intuitive.

For plane seat information: SeatGuru.com. Most airlines offer seat maps of their aircrafts, but SeatGuru is by far the better choice for seating information. For starters, it puts aircraft-by-aircraft seat maps for more than 100 airlines all in one place. Each map comes with color-coded alerts, highlighting good (green), bad (red) and questionable (yellow) seats. Best of all, SeatGuru publishes the amount of legroom in coach, and type of reclining seat in premium class.

For flight information: FlightStats.com and FlightAware.com. You no longer have to rely on what airlines choose to say about the state of their daily operations or any particular flight. Check FlightStats and see how the airline is operating by day, down to the hour, and how flights are running at a specific airport. It also has a continuously updated one-page snapshot of global cancellations and delays.

FlightAware.com trumps FlightStates.com in one area : You can click a link to see where the aircraft due to operate your flight is currently located. Knowing where the plane is usually gives you a better idea of your actual delay time than what a carrier posts on a departute board.

For shopping bonuses: EvRewards.com. With so many frequent flyer miles and guest points now coming from affinity credit cards, this site helps you track, crossreference and highlight the best matches of cards, airlines, hotels and bonus offers so you can maximize your earnings. Simply enter the name of the store or website where you want to shop, and EvRewards returns a list of cash-back offers and bonus deals from credit card, airline and hotel shopping portals.