Travel | Hawaii | Europe

WELCOME TO TRAVEL PAGE!

We love to travel and want to share our experience and ideas with you.  We hope you find the information useful.  If you want to share your experience or don't agree with information listed on these pages please let us know.  Thanks!  

Paper Ticker Surcharge:  American charges $10 fee on most paper tickets.  The fee does not apply to full fare tickets and is not assessed when e-tickets are not an option.

Ticket Change Fee Increase: Continental increased the fee from $75 to $100!  American and United followed the lead by raising the fee to $100.  Southwest is only airlines that doesn't have change fee.
Delta and Northwest raised the fee to $100.

A Strategy for Finding Cheap Airfares on the Web
There isn't a perfect website where you can get the lowest fare all the time.  So you have to use a strategy to locate one.  Please note that this strategy only works for US domestic fares.  We will cover the international fares later.  Please let us know if you don't agree or want to share your experience.

1. Know the Price

Find out about fares.  You can check out the published fares at one of the following sites listed below.  Airlines sells certain number of tickets at different fare levels and sells the cheapest ones first.  All discount fares have restrictions so please read and understand the fare rules.  Both Travelocity & Expedia are offering negotiated deals. Hints on Finding Low Fares - General Rules Reserve Early: many discount fares require 7, 14 or 21 days advance purchase Travel During Week Days: flights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday usually offer the lowest fares. Fares are sometimes (but not always) higher on Monday and Friday than on other weekdays. Saturday flights occasionally have discount fares, but as a rule it's more expensive to fly on a weekend than a weekday. Most low fares require that you stay over at least one Saturday night before your return flight. Travel Time & Flights: many discount fares carry restrictions on flights and times. For example, a fare may only be available on certain flight numbers, in the morning, or late at night. Alternative Airports: airports that are served by low cost airlines such as Southwest offer lower fares.  So check all metropolitan area airports for the city.  For Los Angeles (LAX), consider Burbank (BUR), Orange County (SNA), or Ontario (ONT).  Enter the city codes such as New York (NYC), Washington, DC (WAS), Chicago (CHI),  Dallas (QDF), Houston (QHO), London (LON), or Paris (PAR) to cover all airports when using reservation system. Reservation Tricks   Did you know that flights from/to Las Vegas, NV (LAS) do not have Saturday night stay requirement?  If you want to avoid the Sat stay requirement, you can buy to tickets and connecting at LAS.  If you are traveling between Washington, DC (IAD) and LA (LAX), you buy two tickets; IAD-LAS and LAS-LAX.  This may be  cheaper alternative to buying full fare ticket for IAD-LAX.  Back To Back Ticketing: you can buy two tickets from different airlines to avoid the Saturday night stay requirement and save money.  For examples, you can buy a IAD-LAX ticket from United and buy LAX-IAD ticket from American.  You use the first ticket to get to LAX and use the second ticket to return.  If works out best for those who travels to same destinations frequently.  But DO NOT try this with one airlines; you will face heavy penalty if you get caught.

Expedia  Lists lowest fares found on Expedia but might not fit your travel dates Airline Fare List lists the published airfares between two cities Click Here for Expedia deals Good Interface Does not list/sell Southwest Airlines fares/tickets Charges $10 fee for mailing paper tickets

Travelocity  Best Fare Finder lists the published airfares between two cities You can customize Best Fare Finder Click Here for Travelocity deals You can put the flight reservation on hold for 24 hours. Best Fare Finder will lists fares from/to near by airports if lower fares are available. Best Fare Finder's fare are updated a few times a day.  You have to click on Book It! to get the current fares. Southwest Airlines is no longer listed $10 booking fee is added for Northwest & KLM tickets Charges $10 fee for mailing paper tickets

BestFares  Snooze You Lose  This service is what BestFares excels; these ultra cheap fares often lasts a few hours so prepare to purchase right away.  One of our associates paid $188 for Washington DC (National) and Seattle, Washington on Continental and $170 for Washington DC (National) and Denver, Colorado on American based on this service.  BTW this service is available for free to all visitors. $59 Annual Membership Fee.  Many of its member only specials usually on British Airways and TWA can be obtained elsewhere.

Orbitz  Orbitz is formed by several US major airlines and will be the first website to offer a selection of low-priced, Internet-only fares from more than 30 U.S. and international carriers, in addition to the full spectrum of published fares.

If you found the fare you like, try to book it at airlines website for online booking bonus and possible discount.  For example, Northwest gives you 5% discount when you book the ticket at its website.  The published fares can be further lowered with coupons, vouchers, companion tickets, etc. but you have to deal with airlines directly or through travel agents.  If you like to share your coupon sources, please email us. Discount Coupon Sources Entertainment Book ($35) has Continental and Northwest $ off coupons.  We heard that other airlines will honor these coupons if you ask. CoolSavings sometimes offers Northwest coupons (either $ off or zone fare) TravelersAdvantage offers American $ off coupons when you sign up for its 3 months trial membership for $1 For Washington DC Metro area residents - United hands out $ off coupons during the Fairfax County Fair Companion Ticket Sources Continental offers $99 companion coupon with Privilege Pack for new members American, Delta, United and US Airways offer companion coupons when you sign up for their credit cards.  You can call credit card companies who runs the airlines credit cards program and ask for such promotions.

2. Check Internet Only Fares

If you don't want to sign up for each airline web fares or check out each airlines websites, check out SmarterLiving and TravelZoo  They lists and maintains all internet fares. Orbitz, simplifies internet fares searching across different airlines Savings can be substantial Except Southwest, most of internet fares are for weekends travels Northwest no longer awards frequent flyer miles on its internet fares - Is this a trend to come?

CheapTickets  Requires 5 business days for ticket delivery

CheapSeats  800-451-7200  Good source for last min discounted AA tickets such as IAD-LAX $289-$320 RT

FareChase.com  Searches 70 websites

FlyCheap  Charges $6.95 fee per order

LowestFare  Discounts 20% (off on published fares) on all TWA tickets Update: with American buyout of TWA, LowestFare won't be ability to sell discounted TWA as soon as American takes over

4. Auction Sites

Make sure you don't overbid: check out Priceline and Expedia Bidding board for bidding info Savings can be significant for last min tickets Conditions are very restrictive and tickets do not earn frequent flyer miles

Expedia Price Matcher  Hotwire  Unlike Priceline.com, Hotwire tells you what the fares are before you decide to buy Click Here for current Hotwire deals Priceline  Click Here for current Priceline deals

Tiss.com  Check out consolidator fares! (for international fares)

TicketPlanet  Specializes the around the world ticket

Discounted International Business Class tickets

Trip.com's Flight Tracker  Best flight tracker!

Low Cost Airlines

• Air Tran  Atlanta Hub
• American Trans Air  Chicago Midway Hub
• Frontier Airlines  Denver Hub
• JetBlue Airways  New York JFK Hub
• National Airlines  Las Vegas Hub and stay over Las Vegas is free
• Southwest Airlines
• Vanguard Airlines  Kansas City, MO Hub

Airfare Specials

• American Express Air Offers
• Lufthansa USA Specials Page
• Visit Europe's airfare promotions  For MasterCard holders
      Swiss Air - 2 for 1 Economic Class Tickets

TravelWeb

• Largest internet hotel reservation site
• Good site to get rate info.  Please note that there are many non published rates.
• Weekly weekend specials  Updated every Monday and covers world wide locations

Hilton Value Rates

Holiday-Inn Weekend Deals

Sheraton Hot Rates

Expedia Hotel Price Matcher

PriceLine

Internet Hotel Specials

Entertainment Book  offers 50% discount (from rack rate) at select hotels

Following sites also publish hotel/motel coupons booklets which are available at interstate rest areas, gas stations and fast food restaurants near interstate exits.  They are walk-in rate and you can't make advance reservation with these coupons.  Except for the block out dates, these coupon book offers can be very good.  Make sure you pick up more than one booklet since each booklet cover different locations.

• DestinationCoupons
• HotelCoupons
• LodgingDiscounts
• Midwest Travel Buddy
• Motel-Coupons
• RoomSaver
• USTravelGuide
• TheTravelersFriend

Since every major rental car companies has internet specials, do forget to check them out.

Budget  How about a pick up truck for $24.95/day?

Enterprise Rent-A-Car  Offers good deals on local rentals 

Expedia Car Wizard

PriceLine  Name Your Own Price!

Internet Rental Car Specials

American Express Car Offers

Return to Top                               Copyright © 2000 ValueConsumer, Inc. All rights reserved.

Deals | Shopping | Finance | Travel | Reward Programs | Dining | More

Comments, Compliments, Complaints, Questions or Updates?  Write us!

Disclaimer