Personal assistants traditionally are the privilege of celebrities and the wealthy, people who can afford to pay others to do their thankless chores.

A growing category of Web sites is capitalizing on the theme, offering to do tasks such as reserving restaurant tables, booking flights or buying flowers for your mother.

These are termed “personal electronic assistants,” or PEAs, and their promise is to do anything that can be accomplished on the phone or via e-mail.

A popular way to use a PEA is for call services that always have long waiting times on the phone such as customer-service departments.

The sites justify their fees by putting a price on the user’s time. They suggest it would be worth the money to transfer time once spent on mundane chores to doing pleasurable activities such as playing with children or working on hobbies.

PEA SITES

• Zirga.com offers 35 tasks per month for $95. Extras are 10 tasks for $30.
• Asksunday.com offers plans ranging from 10 requests per month ($19) to 30 tasks for $49 a month.
• Getfriday.com offers “any kind of task or request” at $15 an hour plus $10 a month.
• Domystuff.com applies the Internet auction concept to personal assistance. Customers post chores such as “weeding my garden” and service providers bid on the service.