Cheap Flight Between Orlando and Seattle

Delta usually offers inexpensive fares between Orlando and Seattle, but this particular fare is even better than usual.  It's $199 (round trip including all taxes and fees).  The fare is valid for travel on weekdays, however availability doesn't seem too good.  The good news is that the next fare up is only $6, which does seem to have good availability.  $206 is still an excellent fare for this market!

Never Pay Full Price For That Rental Car!

Whenever you go to some online store to make a purchase, there is bound to be a little box labeled "Promo Code", or "Discount Code", or "Coupon Code".  Most people probably skip right over them.  For me, the first thing I do is a Google search: "[name of store] promo code".  It doesn't always work out, but the ten seconds it takes to look is always worth it.  (There are even entire websites dedicated to compiling and discussing these codes.)

What's my point?  Well, these codes apply to rental car companies too.  However, unlike the stores I talked about above, you probably do have a code or two for your rental car, and not even know it!  If you are a member of basically any frequent flier program, you probably have a code.  If you are a Costco member, you have a code.  This is a virtually endless list.

So, how does this work out in practice?  Let's say I need a car in Boston for a week, February 5th thru the 12th.

1. First, head to www.orbitz.com and do a search for the location and days you want.  Find the car class you desire, and find which agency offers the best price.  I'd need a full size, and the best price is Budget at $333 for the week.  This will be my baseline, and the price I try to optimize.
2. Next, find a discount code.  For me, I'm a Costco member, and have had good luck with them in the past.  So I go to Costco's website, and find this page.  I choose Budget, and look at what the offers are.  To start, I choose the 20% off + $30 discount code.  This will direct me to a page that displays the codes.  You can manually enter the codes, or simply click the "Click to Book" link.
3. I use the same search as before, Boston from February 5-12, full size.  After the discount, the price is $275, almost $60 in savings.  I now go back and choose a different discount code...this time I choose the 30% off code.  Same search again, and the final price ends up being $262.  I could keep going back and choosing different codes, but I'm confident that $262 is the best price I can get, so I book it.  I saved $71 for about a minute of work.

Excellent Deals to Hawaii from Washington D.C. and Sacramento

For those in Washington D.C. wanting to escape the winter cold for somewhere warmer, this one's for you!  American Airlines has published a $430 fare (round trip including all taxes and fees) for Washington Dulles or National to Honolulu.  This is about half of what a normal fare would be (which is proven by the fact that all other airlines are wanting $700+).

The fare is valid for flights Monday thru Thursday, and availability seems excellent for the first couple months of the year.  If you need a little fun in the sun, don't wait!  I don't expect this deal to stick around too much longer.  Also keep in mind that American Airlines allows you to hold reservations (and lock in a price) for 24 hours on their website, www.aa.com. 

For our west coast friends, Delta has published a fare from Sacramento to Maui for $269 (round trip including all taxes and fees).  This is one of the best published deals to Hawaii I have seen in quite some time.  Availability for the Delta fare seems spotty.  Best times is the last few weeks of January.

How to Get Better Deals on Hotels

Getting a good deal on a hotel can sometimes feel impossible.  And sometimes, it actually will be.  Last year, I went to the US Open (golf) at Pebble Beach in California, and hotels (and motels) were running at $400 minimum per night, and most were booked to capacity.  I ended up staying in San Francisco, more than a 2 hour drive from the golf course.  In these types of situations, all you can do is choose between paying a boatload to be close to where you want to be, or choose to stay further away.

In more "normal" situations, there are a few ways to get some deals.  The easiest methods are ones that many people know about, but only few seem to take advantage of:

1. Special rates.  Take advantage of that AAA or AARP club membership that offer special rates at the majority of hotels.  Most of the time, these rates discount the BAR (Best Available Rate), but can sometimes end up being more expensive than the hotel's pre-paid non refundable rate.  Keep in mind though that the AAA rate is refundable most of the time, so if the difference is small, book the AAA rate.  Of course, sometimes the AAA rate can be cheapest outright.
2. Use an opaque website.  Websites like Priceline and Hotwire can offer significant savings.  These sites are "opaque", which means that they only disclose the exact hotel after you have paid.  It sounds odd, but it seems to work.  For Hotwire, they disclose the neighborhood of the hotel and it's star rating, and disclose a price.  If, for example, a 4 star at Los Angeles Airport for $74 sounds good to you, book it!  In the case of Priceline, you choose which star rating and neighborhood you want, and choose the price you want to pay.  Within a minute, Priceline will tell you if your bid has been accepted.  If it is, they charge your credit card and disclose which hotel.  If not, your credit card will not be charged.
3. Get to know a local hotel.  A lot of times, if you call the hotel directly, talk to someone in sales, and ask for a locals rate, they will sometimes offer unpublished rates at significant savings.  This really comes in handy when the in-laws are in town.
4. Purchase the points.  It sounds like a backwards way to get a good deal, but this can sometimes work out.  For example, in Starwood's hotel loyalty program, 3000 points is enough for a hotel night at some properties.  Those 3000 points can be purchased for $105 which can be less than what the rate is at that hotel.  For NYC (which is one of the most expensive areas for hotels in the the US), you can purchase enough Priority Club points for $128 for a few different Priority Club properties in Manhattan, which is an excellent deal for Manhattan.

Happy saving!

Deal! Cheap Flights between Miami and California

United and Continental both have published an extremely good fare for travel between Miami and Los Angeles or San Francisco (meaning you can travel in either direction).  This fare has been available for a few days, so I don't expect it to be around too much longer, but if you want a quick and cheap vacation, this is an excellent deal.  The fare is $98 each way between Miami and Los Angeles, and slightly more for San Francisco.  It is valid all day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.  Availability seems very good for at least the first few months of the new year.

If you find days that work, don't delay!  (United even allows you to refund for any reason without penalty for 24 hours for travel booked on their North American website).

A Note on "Deals"

"Good Deals" only last a very limited amount of time, in any industry.  This is especially true for travel deals.  Sometimes a good deal may last a few days or more, but other times we'd have to measure the time in minutes.  All this means is that if you find a deal here, and you can't seem to reproduce the results, it's probably because the deal is gone.  Don't fret though, a better deal is bound to surface!

Travel Deals of the Day

Let's face it...a lot of people like to travel.  At the same time, a lot of people don't like to spend a lot of money to do so.  At the same time, a lot of people simply don't know when they have run into "good deal", with respect to travel.  

There are all sorts of ways to get good deals.  Airlines and hotel chains have loyalty programs which can offer some of the best deals, travel agents like Expedia sometimes offer "discounts" that can get you an excellent vacation for an excellent price, and other times there are just excellent prices without any gimmicks.

I have spend the last few years of my life doing exactly this.  Getting the best deals.  It's also something that a lot of people are interested in.  You don't want to be the person to find out that you paid three times more than someone else for the exact same product. So if you don't want to be that person, stay tuned!  There is an infinite amount of knowledge...