25 replies to this topic

[Haystack]

Back on topic. :halo:

If you happen to have more time than money, Priceline does have some deals. I've used Hotwire to get a feel for how cheap a fair I might find on Priceline, then underbid that fare by around 30% on Priceline. If you haven't used the site before, be sure to read all of the fine print. You'll almost always have a layover (Minneapolis to Dallas to Salt Lake City comes to mind). You also have to be willing to accept a huge time window for both legs of your trip. It could turn your 4 day weekend into two if they put you on a 11:55pm Thursday flight and a Sunday morning return.

For hotels, Priceline works great. Just pick your stars, price, and location and they'll hook you up.

Some airlines offer bonus miles for booking through their site. There's also a browser plug-in from Sidestep.com that pulls airline fares for you when you run a travel search on most major search engines. It's free and comes up with the occasional deal.

[Scottie]

FYI- Sidestep is spyware and almost always comes up (for me anyway) with higher fares than Travelocity.

Yay Ian!! Congrats- you'll have a great time.

[Craig B]

A few of us are going to the Toronto session as well. We were trying to make it to NY but it wasn't in the cards.

Back on topic.

oops, sorry!

[mcanerin]

Hey Craig! Maybe we can gang up on an agent and get a package deal happening for the Calgary contingent....

Ian

[Craig B]

Hey Craig! Maybe we can gang up on an agent and get a package deal happening for the Calgary contingent....

Sure thing Ian. We have briefly checked into flights and hotels. I'll send the info off to you when we have everything nailed down (and approved!).

[copywriter]

Thanks, Ed. I looked at Priceline, but since I have to have specific dates and semi-specific times, it wouldn't work this go 'round.

Ian, you'll do just fine! And congrats! <Forgot to say that eariler, I think.>

[Haystack]

FYI- Sidestep is spyware and almost always comes up (for me anyway) with higher fares than Travelocity.

Interesting. I remember meeting the founders once, and thought they had a decent concept but wasn't sure how they'd get people to install the plugin. A few quick searches for Sidestep and Spyware explain a lot.

I've found the fares to be similar, but would occasionally receive bonus mile incentives on the Sidestep fares for clicking through to book directly through the airline sites.

[mcanerin]

It's not airplane tix, but this might be helpful.

I have found so far that the cheapest rates for hotels seem to be from www.123accomodations.com, in spite of the fact that it's got a stupid domain name.

I asked them last time i booked what was up with the site and it turns out it's a sub company owned by travelocity. But their prices are cheaper than travelocity's, as far as I can tell.

The first time I ever used them, we found a hotel we wanted, then went to all the other sites I could think of and punched the exact same info in and chose the same hotel - and it was always more expensive. Then I phoned the hotel itself and tried to get the same price, and they quoted way above.

Since it was the first time I ever booked with them, I booked, then got a confirmation, then immediately phoned the hotel again to make sure they got it. They did, and verified the price (which was way lower than the price they had just quoted me 5 minutes earlier). And they didn't even have the grace to sound embarrased!

So anyway, I book with 123 now.

Ian

[copywriter]

Good tip! Well, I've found (so far on this trip) that US Air has the lowest flight. I've checked Expedia, Orbitz, etc., etc. and going through US Air's site is cheapest (for now).

It AMAZES me at the difference in ticket prices! Northwestern Air was going to charge $950 for the same flight I could get from US Air for $347. Delta was charging $650 or something in that range. Good grief!

[mcanerin]

I just found http://www.qixo.com/flight.html , which provides info for the flights that 123 offers.

Apparently it's a "Flight Search Engine" that looks at a bunch of different travel sites and then spits out the lowest fairs.

Ian

[copywriter]

Hmmm! Interesting... will head over there. Thanks!!