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Pauline Frommer, creator of "Pauline Frommer Guidebooks" shares travel tips to help you keep your spending down this holiday season.
AIRFARES:
Airlines have cut a full 10% of their flights this year from last (which is equivalent to one of the major airlines having gone out of business). However, there are some ways to save:
Book at those times that no-one else wants to fly: cheapest times will be December 25 and 29, the evening of December 24 (not the morning, though), the morning of January 1 and the evening of December 31 and January 5 and 6. Second cheapest will be the midweek flights between Xmas and New Years.
Flights with stops will often be cheaper than non-stops. Use such search engines as www.kayak.com and www.sidestep.com that allow you to plug in these types of variations.
Check ALL the prices before booking a ticket. Additional fees on luggage could mean that a flight that seems more expensive at first, will actually turn out to be cheaper (and I can list websites that quickly give you the lowdown on fees)
Sales tend to pop Monday mornings with other airlines matching in the coming hours. They’re pulled, usually on Thursdays. So it’s best to book travel late Monday or on Tuesdays.
FEES:
Southwest Airlines has no fees for the first two bags checked and JetBlue and AirTran only charges for the second. Because luggage fees can add up to $40 onto the cost of your flight, if these two airlines are close in price to the airline with the best rate, you may want to fly one of them if you’re planning on checking luggage. (Delta as of this week started charging for the first checked bag). If you must fly United, know that you can save $3 for checking in online (meaning you’ll pay $12 rather than $15 for your luggage)
See if your status with the airline allows you to check for free. Some airlines waive fees for those who’ve achieved Elite status (varies per airline) with the airline’s frequent flyer programs.
Consider buying online and having the company ship to your destination for you. That will allow you to skip luggage fees altogether on those gifts.
HOTELS:
Don’t use the 800 number. “opaque” agencies as Priceline and Hotwire are getting spectacular deals as are consumers who simply call up and bargain. call the hotel directly and try and bargain. Instead, call the local number and ask to speak with the reservations manager as he’s the guy with the power to bargain. You’ll be amazed how often this works.
OR go with those chains and companies who are discounting quite openly. Starwood Hotels (which consists of the W Hotels, Westin, Four Points, Sheraton, etc) is offering a raft of different discounts, some of which are good for 50% off your second night in over 500 hotels in the US, Canada and Caribbean. Travelocity is offering a rebate of $75 dollars for stays between now and January 31 which are booked by the end of November
Starwood Deals:
Offer only valid through bookings made on that site.
Rentals vs. Hotels
Rentals are a terrific option for travelers, especially those with children as it means having a kitchen (important with picky eaters in tow) and more room than a hotel room affords (so you can shut the door between you and the little ones should the mood strike). Surprisingly, though condos and other types of vacation rentals offer much more room, they’re often equivalently priced or cheaper than hotel rooms. An example: In NYC, the average cost for a hotel room, according to American Express Travel Agencies, is $325/night. You can rent an apartment for $150/night.
So how to find them? There are two ways: through a direct to owner website (such as VRBO.com, Zonder.com, HomeAway.com or Craigslist.com) or through a local rental agent. Each has its pluses and minuses. The plus with going direct to owners is usually the cost, which is lower in about 75% of the cases than rental agents houses are. But the minuses are that if something goes wrong with the rental (your toilet overflows say, or what you get is nothing like what you were told you’d be getting) a rental agent can fix problems or if those problems are unfixable, can move you to another apartment. If you’re dealing directly with an owner, you’re stuck when problems arise.
CRUISES:
Cruising’s taking a bruising… which means excellent discounts for Thanksgiving cruises, and I think we’re going to be seeing equivalent ones come Xmas. Some examples:
Thanksgiving: Nov. 24, Norwegian Cruiselines, Norwegian Sky. Four days for $129 ($32/day!). You should be able to find this at Norwegian’s site or book it from any cruise agent.
Christmas:
December 22, Carnival Imagination. Four nights for $299 (Miami-Key West-Cozumel-Miami). Seller: CruisesOnly.com or direct from Carnival (or any other booker, really) Dec 20, Norwegian Star, 7 nights for $699 (LA-Cabo San Lucas-Mazatlan-Puerto Vallarta-LA). Available from CruisesOnly.com and many other sights December 20, Celebrity Summit: 7 nights from $649 (San Juan-St. Maarten-Dominica-Grenada-Bonaire-Aruba-San Juan) Price includes one free hotel night before the cruise when booked from www.travelthemesanddreams.com. Other online bookers will also have it, though not with the free hotel night.
The thing about cruise bookings nowadays is that there’s no longer different prices depending on the seller. However, different sellers may have different perks to offer their customers (such as ship credit, free upgrades, etc.)
Disney Discounts:
From November-Mid-December: Disney’s All Star resorts are charging $59 as opposed to their usual $99. These are Disney’s budget properties and are a bit motel-like, but they still allow their guests to enjoy “Magic Hours” (ie extra hours, without non-Disney guests) in the park and free transportation from the airport and to and from the rides.
From January 4-9, Jan 19-March 26 and April 24-June 27: If you buy four days of admission tickets and stays at Disney, you get three days free. That’s a 43% discount, the biggest discount Disney has EVER given. Book by December 20. Those who travel by March 26 also get a $200 Disney Gift Card. Also, In 2009 as part of the "What Will you Celebrate" promotion, Disney is offering free admission to Disney Parks on your Birthday, at either Disneyland or Walt Disney World sign up at DisneyParks.com for your free ticket
PAULINE’S PICKS FOR BEST TRAVEL WEB SITES
HotelsCombined.com
A site that doesn’t sell travel but simply searches other sites, from major discounters (hotels.com, venere.com, laterooms.com, Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com, and more) to hotel chains (Intercontinental.com, HolidayInn.com, etc.) . You put in a date and a city and it quickly searches all these sites and returns a list to you from cheapest to most expensive. Fast, easy and a really thorough search tool.
CruiseCritic.com
An excellent source for cruise reviews both from journalists and ordinary joes. A good place to look for cruise deals, too
Kayak.com
Another search site for travel, like HotelsCombined.com it searches a number of different sources and shows the information in many different rubrics (so you can quickly compare the costs of non-stop flights with those that have layovers; or look at airports near the ones you want to go to; or find out which days in the month will be the cheapest to fly; and more)
Frommers.com
An impartial, journalistically based source of information for hotels around the world, as well as sightseeing attractions, shopping, local transportation, nightlife, you name it. The entire text of Frommers 330-plus guides are here, making it much more comprehensive than the websites run by other guidebook companies. It also has one of the best blogs in the business on the site which covers all of the latest trends and happenings in travel quite thoroughly
xe.com
Straightforward, easy to use currency converter
