Getting the Best Deal 101

Photo: Getting the Best Deal 101

// April 20th, 2008 // Tip Sheets

  1. Sign up for Travelzoo’s and Sherman’s Travel’s weekly newsletters. They gather up the best deals from all over the internet and send them to your inbox.
  2. Never believe a cruise line or airline when they tell you “You’re getting the best price by booking directly with them.” There are consolidators and travel agents with group deals that will beat them almost everytime.
  3. ALWAYS SHOP AROUND. Just because you booked your last HAL cruise with Travel Agency X and they were the cheapest, doesn’t mean that they’ll be the cheapest for your next Celebrity cruise… A good place to start is vacationstogo.com’s 90 day ticker.
  4. “Included Airfare” is usually NOT a good deal. Check what you can do the flights for yourself, and then find out what the “rebate” is if you don’t take the cruise ship (or land tour) airfare. With one exception (Cunard’s $199 Concorde flight), I’ve been able to save a few hundred everytime.
    Don’t believe the big “travel” sites like Expedia and Travelocity either, there are almost always better deals elsewhere. After all, they have to pay for their advertising somehow…
  5. Get creative when booking long distance plane travel. ie. Sometimes it’s cheaper to get to Bangkok by flying to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, and then on a completely seperate ticket, with a completely different airline, fly on to Bangkok. The same holds true for cities in Europe, Africa, and South America.
  6. If you’re flying international Business or First, try pricing it as both a roundtrip AND two individual one way fares. Sometimes the one ways add up cheaper.
  7. If you’re doing one way hops – almost anywhere in the world except for the US, always check the business/first class fare. It may only be a few dollars more, and worth a lot more in miles and comfort. Another option, is check the roundtrip price, sometimes the roundtrip ticket is a lot less than the one way ticket.
  8. When looking for airfare – find out who ALL the carriers are for a given location, not everyone shows up on the major travel sites. Go to individual airline sites for those that don’t show up at Expedia or Travelocity. The OAG is a great place to start. You’ll sometimes find them at places like airgorilla.com or bargaintravel.com too.
  9. If you’re going to be flying a lot, check out the best deals and then pick a frequent flyer program that works with your flights and rack up the miles. (ie. LAN and AA might fly the exact same plane on the exact same route – and the LAN codeshare ticket is half the AA price, you still get the same miles with AA).
  10. Don’t be afraid to use a travel site you haven’t heard of before – just check them out first! Oh, and always pay with a credit card/debit card (with a Visa/MC logo).

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