Cheap Airfares that Save a Weekend
Sep 12 '00
"Sorry Paul, I can't afford to fly this weekend. I know we have been planning this trip for months, but I am still a student. I just can't afford to fly out there."
I sat back in my chair, frustrated, thinking about all the fun I was going to miss while my friends flew to Denver for a weekend of exploration. We had planned all of our activies out. Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, the Olympic training facility, we were going to see some great places. But, I could not afford to go.
Having found free housing and an inexpensive Car Rental, the only expense that I had to conquer was the airfare. After calling several major airlines, the lowest fares on round-trip travel from Boston to Denver were going to cost me $450 or more. Try as I might, I could not justify spending next months' rent money on a weekend with my friends.
As I sat in my room, staring at a blank computer screen, an idea hit me. What about online booking? I had read that last minute online airfares could be rather inexpensive and easy to book. So, I set my sights on a search engine and searched for "Internet Only Airfares". What the search engine turned up saved my weekend.
I clicked on the first link listed, which brought me to smarterliving.com. The description of the site read, "Discount Travel, Internet Airfare Specials, Travel Sales and More." That is exactly what I found too. Seeing that I was searching for cheap airfares, I clicked on the Airfare Bargain Guide. I smirked a bit at the introduction to the guide as it boldly announced, "Airfare deals do exist!"
I looked over my choices from the eight options presented to me and decided to try the Internet Specials first. I searched for specials leaving from Boston and to my luck, Denver was listed at a mere $198 on United. I checked the restrictions to make sure the fare applied to my need. Sure enough, the fare was good for travel that weekend, just what I needed. The restrictions contained a link to the United Airlines home page, and I booked my flight.
In all, it took me 20 minutes to get a fare $250 cheaper than the quotes I had received over the phone.
After I booked my flight and gleefully danced around my room for a minute or two, I decided to take a more thorough look at the website that had saved my trip. I found a few neat options that I had overlooked in my haste to get a good airfare. Smarter Living offers weekly e-mails with all of the internet airfare specials from the major US departure cities as well as a slew of other specialized travel newsletters. I also found a section called "Deal Alert!" with lots of different travel articles ranging from Airfare to Cruise specials.
I was able to go on my trip because I stumbled onto smarterliving.com. Best of all, the travel advice and education I received was all free.
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