The World's CHEAPEST Traveler (tm) Reveals ALL About Finding Cheap Travel Online...Mar 05 '05 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Here's the straight skinny from "The World's Cheapest Traveler(tm)" about WHERE to find CHEAP travel deals in 2005... Next time you're getting on plane, take a look around. Do most of the seats look the same to you? They do to me. Why then, do some people get cheap rates to sit in some of them, while others pay ridiculously high rates? Well, it's the nature of the airline industry. Yield management and all that B.S., you know. Most of the time, I get a smug little smile on my face when I'm looking around the plane because I know something those folks don't --- I know that I am the person sitting in the CHEAPEST SEAT ON THE PLANE. I LOVE to travel, and that means I NEED to get cheap prices so that I can go LOTS of places instead of being stuck with just one overpriced vacation per year, like some folks do. One of my earliest general travel reviews was an overview of how to always find the CHEAPEST seat on the plane. It was a popular review, but as I read it today, it looks a little bit dated. While many of the strategies I mentioned in that article are STILL important factors today, there are a lot of new web sites, a lot of new strategies, and lot more ways to find travel bargains. Now, new and improved for March 2005, here are some of my thoughts on how to TRAVEL CHEAP, 2005 STYLE! ******************************************* *** Mandatory First Stops On the Web for Everybody *** The largest and best-known travel web sites are the obvious places to start looking for your travel needs. Although nowadays the rock-bottom prices pop up on aggregator sites and other lesser-traveled sites, the biggies still do impressively well at delivering competitive rates. They also tend to have the widest range of options, and they tend to have the best service, best usability, and best reliability. Even if you don't ever buy a ticket or make a reservation through these sites, they are the sites to use to set basic benchmark prices on any itinerary. Some of the sites also have tools that can help you unearth hidden deals that might otherwise escape you --- Travelocity's fare watcher feature is a classic in this regard, and its flexible fare finder for flights is unrivaled by any other site. Benchmark: That's the reason everybody should use these sites. They establish the baseline price for you so that you know what the price to beat really is. It does no good to start off at auction sites or "discount" travel sites if you don't even have a clue what the actual prices are. In my opinion, these are the top general purpose travel sites, in order of their general usefulness and their general reliability in terms of helping you (and me) find and book cheap travel deals: 1. Travelocity (www.travelocity.com): Its the oldest of the three, with roots in the Sabre travel booking engine, and it has some of the best features going. I also find that its the only one of the three that really does well at finding (and letting you book) good deals on international travel (not just from the U.S. to a foreign destination, but between cities in far-flung continents, and it finds a good selection of hotels even in the most remote corners of the world. Travelocity wins the number one slot by also letting its flexible fare finder work with totally international itineraries, a smart move that completely blows away less sophisticated competitors. 2. Expedia (www.expedia.com): The me-too travel site that Microsoft put online a few years ago does pretty well at most basic itineraries. Its clear, functional, and attractive interface is what I like best about the site. Travel tools are often less flexible than those on Travelocity, and they sometimes show a surprising lack of worldliness, but I still use it regularly, and I recommend that you do too because sometimes it will find a deal that Travelocity or other sites miss. 3. Orbitz (www.orbitz.com): Run by the major airlines, I've been consistently disappointed by this site's frequent ability to miss obvious deals that everyone else finds. It is an abyssmal performer for international travel, but I still find myself stopping in now and then before booking, just to make sure there's not something out there I overlooked. GOTCHA! There are a few things to be aware of when using the general-purpose travel web sites: 1 - You usually have to pre-pay or guarantee a hotel reservation, and you usually have many more restrictions on cancellations or changes than you would have if you booked direct through the hotel. Sometimes a hotel may charge only the first night for a no-show while some travel sites charge the entire cost. 2 - The fares are often the most restricted available, and changes or cancellations can be impossible or far more costly than you'd get if you booked direct through a hotel, airline, cruise line, etc. Not always, but read the conditions before you click "Purchase" to make sure you know what you're doing. 3 - The web site is your travel agent --- if you want changes, you need to go through the web site, some of which have significantly poorer customer service than the airline, hotel chain, or even many traditional travel agents. Read the reviews of these sites here on Epinions --- you'll find dozens of horror stories about people who wanted to make a change, only to have the hotel clerk / airline reservation agent / cruise ship director refuse, all the while routinely making the same type of changes for their own direct customers. 4 - In spite of the caveats, you can often save money on these sites. They work best for the traveler who knows what they're doing and who NEVER changes plans under any circumstances (or can afford to eat an occasional unused ticket or hotel charge for an unused stay). ******************************************* *** Aggregators *** There's been a lot of noise over the last year or two about aggregator travel sites. The idea is simple: because no one site consistently turns up the rock-bottom price, you run a program to go out and search lots of travel sites at once, hopefully nailing the hidden deal that you'd have missed if you used only a particular airline web site, or even one specific general-purpose travel site. One of the thing I like about aggregators is that some of them scour even the reclusive airline sites --- you know, the ones that are generally hostile to having open information about their fares show up on other travel web sites because they like to build an image as low fare carriers, but they don't want the flying public to easily catch on that their "deals" aren't always the best prices in the air (indeed, one thing that aggregators . Naturally, these airlines probably don't want me criticizing their business practices, so in the spirit of fair play, I will identify them only by the secret code words "Southwest Airlines" and "JetBlue". If you figure out what my clever codes mean, don't tell anyone else, okay? There have been some good things happening in the world of aggregator sites lately, with several new sites bringing new options or more extensive searching capabilities to the game. Here are a few of my favorite aggregator sites: 1 - Sidestep (www.sidestep.com) is a great option for airline tickets because it searches so many sites, including most foreign flag carriers --- these are often the best deals going for international travel, yet sites like Orbitz don't search most of 'em, so they can't deliver consistently good fares. Use sidestep and you'll be able to nail the discounts. 2 - Kayak (www.kayak.com) is a fairly new aggregator site, and it starts off searching just the way you would --- by looking at the major general sites as well as individual provider sites (airline, hotel, etc.) Usually, I don't do much better with this than I do with Travelocity, except I find it somewhat useful for searching for bargain hotels. 3 - Mobissimo (www.mobissimo.com) is another new site that I've just begun working through. I have yet to score a major coup with this one, but it's showing some promise. 4 - Qixo (www.qixo.com) is a favorite of some folks, but I've never liked the fact that it stacks fees on top of any deal it finds, making its utility a bit dubious unless it scores a MAJOR find, which, lets face it, doesn't happen that often these days if you're at all careful about your shopping. GOTCHA! Pretty much all the caveats of general travel sites hold true for aggregator sites, plus there are a few more... 1 - Watch out for fees or hidden charges: Some of the aggregators (like qixo.com) charge you a booking fee on top of whatever "low price" they find. When you comparison shop, make sure you factor in the cost of these fees or you may end up being one of the teeming millions who "save money" by paying more than me or the other smart travelers who passed on "the deal". 2 - Watch out for downloads: If you're one of the two or three people who has an inkling about computer security, you'll be wary of downloaded executables which may or may not be packing hidden payloads of adware, spyware, or worse. Some executables are clean, I'm sure, but caveat emptor never had so much importance as it does when doing business on the net... ******************************************* *** Auctions and Hidden Provider Sites *** If you want to be try to exert control over the pricing process, you can play with Priceline, Hotwire, or one of the many auction and last-minute deal sites that are out there. On hotels, I find Priceline and Hotwire to occasionally be useful, but you need to be smart about using the sites, and you need to have an excellent knowledge of the market, otherwise, despite what you hear in the glowing reviews and customer testimonials, you will actually pay more for your travel than if you'd just gone ahead and booked via one of the general purpose web sites. Hidden provider sites let you "name your own price" without knowing what airline you'll fly, when you'll fly, or what hotels you'll stay in. Here's where to go if you want to try this: 1 - www.betterbidding.com: Knowledge is the key to getting a deal on these sites, and anybody who uses the sites without reading the comments on my number 1 and number 2 entries here is just asking to be ripped off. This site will tell you how much other people are bidding for things and what they got when. Used in conjunction with "the going rates" that you found on the general-purpose web sites, you could get a deal, if you're smart, and if you play the game right. I like this site because it includes info for using both Priceline and Hotwire. 2 - www.biddingfortravel.com: Like number 1, but for Priceline only. Generally more entries than number 1, but I don't get the feel that site is as well run as number 1. 3 - Priceline (www.priceline.com): The grandaddy of "name your own price" travel sites, unfortunately, the real deals are largely a thing of the past and Priceline nowadays seems more worried about selling fixed price packages than sticking to its bread and butter. You can still occasionally save money on Priceline, but mostly on hotels. 4 - Hotwire (www.hotwire.com): The advantage of Hotwire over Priceline is that you see a price up front and you can accept it or not, though you still don't know the name of the provider until you pay. Auction sites are just that --- bid and maybe you'll win. Know the going rates and shop very carefully because these sites seldom give you true bargains and it is very easy to get caught up in the "auction mentality" so that you end up paying MORE than you would have if you'd just gone ahead and used the general travel web sites. Here's a couple places to try: 1 - SkyAuction (www.skyauction.com): Seems to me like there's a lot of mediocre timeshare properties filling unused rooms here, no? Watch out for all kinds of conditions, especially severe limitations on when you can travel on your "winning" bid. 2 - Luxury Link (www.luxurylink.com): Upscale properties and some very comfortable, well thought out escapes, but you can often do better on the price for identical packages on identical itineraries just piecing things together yourself using Travelocity. GOTCHA! Caveat emptor, caveat emptor, caveat emptor. All the gotchas listed for all the above areas probably apply here too, but there are even more gotchas.... 1 - All deals are final: Don't expect to change plans if you book on these sites --- most of the deals on all these sites specify that no changes are permitted. 2 - Don't expect service: There's been a lot of chatter about Priceline and SkyAuction customers getting stuck with unpleasant accommodations or experiencing bad service. Some hotel employees admit that they look on such customers as second-class citizens, and almost all hotels and airlines admit that at some level they will always take care of their own customers before the "name your own price" or "auction" customers. 3 - Don't expect perks: Airlines often don't give frequent flyer miles or credit for tickets purchased on these sites, and hotels often don't give credit for their frequent guest programs. Also, don't expect any of the usual upgrades that you might earn for being in the provider's loyalty program. 4 - On the auction sites, watch the blackout dates! Watch the blackout dates! 5 - Watch out for hidden fees: I saw one thread on the Fodors site about an auction customer getting a good deal only to find out that the resort's mandatory "resort fees" and "all-inclusive" fees more than doubled what he thought he was paying for a hotel room. ******************************************* *** Last Minute Escapes *** For the last few years, those of who like to escape for unplanned long weekends have been able to get some very good last-minute prices from all of the major airlines. Unfortunately, many of the deals seemed to have dried up as of January first of this year. Continental and American haven't been offering diddly squat the last couple months and United's prices have been, ummmm, well let's just say uninspired. When the deals pop up, you can often find them at these two sites: 1 - Travel Zoo (www.travelzoo.com): I've really gotten hooked on this site, which has pages you can bookmark for departures from major cities. I like Travel Zoo because it often includes last-minute deals from package tour operators blowing out unsold seats on charter flights and it includes cruise lines with really good prices on last-minute sailing dates. Example: last month, it spotted $99 round trip airfare from Houston to Cancun --- a genuine deal in anybody's book! 2 - Smarter Living (www.smarterliving.com): Great site for consolidating last-minute deals from lots of airlines. Check the site on Tuesday afternoon for best results and best chance of scoring a deal. As I mentioned, the pickings have been meager the last few weeks, but you never know....they may pick up again. There are also a couple of red-herring sites --- sites that purport to offer deals, but can usually be beat. Chief among these is: 9 - Site 59 (www.site59.com): Does package deals to everywhere from everywhere. The site is fun to poke around on, but I have NEVER found a deal here that I couldn't beat elsewhere. I suspect its a step-child of Orbitz, but don't know that to be the case. While I don't find that this site can really save anyone any money, it can save you time --- it's an easy-to-use place to find some interesting pre-packaged weekend getaways. GOTCHA! Surprisingly, there are probably fewer gotchas here than in the other areas, mostly because you usually book last-minute travel direct with the airline. When you don't, gotchas from the above sections may apply. I love last-minute deals because they're cheap, but also because I usually can get airline miles and hotel credits even when scarfing on good rates. It's a real win-win situation. ******************************************* *** INFORMATION ABOUT TRAVEL *** I'm a huge proponent of "know before you go" and I voraciously read everything I can about a place so that I hit the ground running when I get there and I don't waste time figuring out what's worth doing and what's not. I already have a clue. Here are some of the sites I like to prowl. 1 - Epinions: Hey! The mother site has a boatload of good reviews by knowledgable travelers. Best of all, the VH rated reviews are usually pretty solid, pretty readable, and have enough information to truly get an idea what's what. 2 - Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com): I like the thorntree forum, which has a lot of good budget-oriented chatter about every place under the sun. The general destination is never more than a brief glance since they really want folks to buy their (often quite good) guidebooks. 3 - Fodors (www.fodors.com): Same as with Lonely Planet. What I like about Fodors is that they don't criticize people who sometimes like paying a little more to travel more comfortably. There's not as much chatter as on Lonely Planet, but there's still some good info going on, and they also push folks towards the guidebooks. 4 - Columbus Guide (www.travel-guide.com): I like the elegantly simple design and the easy navigability. I actually find more useful destination info here than I do on the more popular Lonely Planet and Fodors site, but I miss the travel chat forums... 5 - Travel Library (www.travel-library.org): I'm a sucker for an interesting travelogue, so I'm prowling here occasionally. Most of the content is stale with little new stuff flowing in, but since most of the sites today ignore longer articles, the archives are a diamond in the rough for the knowledgable traveler. (See also www.travel.org). 6 - Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com): They sure have a ton of reviews, especially for hotels, but the site is cluttered and filled with far more chaff than wheat. (I swear I'm going to scream if I visit one more destination page only to have it say that the "top hotels" for that city are a Best Western and an Econo Lodge in the suburbs when I know darn well that the city has luxury hotels, true resorts, or upscale boutique properties). I take the recommendations with a dump truck load of salt. GOTCHA! Most of these sites are written by amateurs for amateurs. The writing is seldom stellar, the recommendations are often of dubious quality, people at all of them tend to wildly overrate the places they've been. Caveat emptor... ******************************************* *** Bottom Line... *** There's a lot of ways to save money on travel, and a lot of sites offering a lot of different options, each with their own pluses and their own gotchas. If you can't find one that does the trick, there's one more card to play --- the foriegn site: sometimes non-U.S. travel sites will offer deals that domestic sites can't match. It can pay to be worldly... Until next time, see you on the plane. As always, look for me in the cheap seat!  |
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