Where do you get your best results on "research" on best deals at?

Kayka?Travelocity?????~Thanks for any info:rolleyes:

i book over the phone directly with the resort about 4 to 5 months in advance, they book up quickly especially when we stay for 18 days, then book our flight at the same time thru expedia.ca with westjet, soon come

I have had the best results with Kayak

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TizzyATX

I have had the best results with Kayak

---

It's funny because in my experience kayak returned higher prices than some of their competitors.
I actually spent a lot of time researching over the course of months, sometimes I would have everything including kayak,orbitz, priceline, hotwire, travelocity, hotels.com, google flights, and so forth and so on because ocassionally the pricing will be different.

In my opinion Orbitz and Hotwire often returned the lowest prices, aggregators like google.com/flights allow you to quickly scan for airline prices.

This time around I ended up booking through the hotel directly(catcha gardens) and booked my airline ticket through hotwire because I had a $20 entertainment book rebate.

Often I'll call the hotel directly if I feel their pricing is a little high for what the rest of the market is looking like, and I have no issues with looking for a discount because that means I'll have more money to spend on food, drinks, and tipping!

I was raised frugal and it's helped in the business world and it helps when planning vacations, the key is to not wait too long to book because it does become a gamble( I ended up paying $479 for my flight, a month earlier I would have paid $350).

I like to book directly with the hotel or resort. Generally, it has always worked out better. Regarding airlines, booking directly with the airline has given me the best prices. I might add, that I live in a very small state with small airports. I'm sure that those living in other areas might find better deals with travel sites. Every vacation, I always enter my info on these sites and everytime...the prices are cheaper when booking directly. Might add, that flights are generally booked about 5-6 months in advance and sometimes more.

I forgot to mention it also depends on WHEN you're booking the flight/hotel room for, if it's during high season 5-6 months in advance is critical for best pricing.... Off season it's usually the complete opposite and booking that far out is bound to cost you a lot more.

I generally also do a stopover in Florida instead of a direct flight from DC, as it saves money and I don't mind being in an airport terminal for a few hours, flying direct can be a LOT more expensive and a layover on the way back lets me get caught up on work.

I wish I had enough miles saved up for the flight, generally airline tickets are "free" thanks to putting everything on a work credit card.

I always use Orbitz but someone posted a website yesterday called Otel.com. I think it has the best deals on rooms right now.

For hotels I have always booked directly with the property except once when I was looking for a deal on one night in MoBay.
For flights I check Kayak, Orbitz, and Vayama and then double check the airlines sites also.

As an fyi, for flights google flights aggregates pretty much all of the deal sites and is extremely easy to use.

They also check the airline sites directly, which makes comparison shopping a lot easier.

It doesn't hurt to shoot the hotel an e-mail and ask if they are offering any deals. It's worth it just see if they will beat the prices on the travel sites. If you are a repeat customer, mention that and you will often get a price better than the advertised rate.

For airfare, I find that the prices I get directly through the airline are generally a few bucks cheaper than through the travel websites. Also, I use a US Airways rewards card, so I get double miles if I book directly through them. (I'm hoping that my miles will pay for at least one ticket on our next reach.)

Didn't realize we were talking hotels too.....I've only done that directly. Used Kayak for flights. Booger found me a real cheap flight on JetBlue but it wasn't a JA flight. PS Jetblue is now my fav airline, Love it.

Tizzy,Jet Blue flies out of Austin to Mobay?I did'nt know that?-If so i'll check into that

Vince...I dont think so, but I wanna say they have a nonstop flight from Houston to Sangster. The flight I mentioned was to Long Beach not Mobay. Just making mention tht the rate was good and i really appreciated the good service they provided.

I used Otel.com for hotel. If you are a facebook member, you get 10% off from them. Everything went fine.

Also very good rates is : http://www.worldwideholidays.com.au/default.aspx, i used them and everything went fine.

hotelscombined.com is very useful .... like fifty sites all in one.

If I am only booking a flight, I buy directly from the airline. In case I want to change or cancel a flight (it happens), I only have to pay the airline change fee. Last I checked, Orbits and Expedia (and AMEX travel) charge their own change fee in addition to the airline.

I also look at the one-way flight schedules, to get the times I want. When I search round trip, sometimes only a couple combinations come up for choice.

Matrix.itasoftware.com ......best site for flights as it consolidates all flights at once starting with the lowest price

I use Kayak for a start on flights. It will give you the cheapest flight dates for the month you want to travel. The airlines they don't list, I go to their website. Look for promo codes on Retailmenot.com. Hotels, search & call, promo codes. Negril One Stop, Booking.com, Orbitz, etc. Try to get a airline credit card, (pay in full after you book) get deals on free bags, skymiles. Ask for giftcards or skylines as Christmas & birthday gifts! "If you want to go, you got to know"..

I agree with "fargoman" ................ matrix.itasoftware.com is the ONLY place to search airfare ........... this is the software used by travel agents ................ if you are flexible on travel dates, you can bring up 30 days of travel possibilities covering all airlines (except Soutwest) ............ just click on "calender" instead of "exact dates", enter the amount of days you want to travel, and a 30 day calender will appear with the cheapest flight listed for each day .......... you can also enter a range of days (ex. 7-10 days), and they will bring up a 30 calender listing prices for 7, 8, 9, & 10 days of travel ............ many times going a day or two earlier or returning a day or two later will result in some significant savings ............ many times we have saved enough on airfare staying a day or three longer to pay for the extra nights of hotels, etc....

Please note you can NOT book through ITA ............ you must book through another site or the airline themselves .............. ITA is only a information site

Also check flights EVERYDAY .......... sometimes multiple times a day ............... prices can go up and down multiple times a day

We looked at flights r/t from our local airport....and got the best rate through U.S Airways....but it still seemed a lot higher than normal....so, out of curiousity(and, even though no search engine showed any flights for..) I looked at United.com..since they fly in/out of our airport,but I figured they don't go to MoBay...what happened was AMAZING....they showed a r/t flights for the exact same days...for $800 cheaper than ALL the booking agents/sites....HOW CAN THIS BE?....turns out(after I booked us)...that the flights showed the EXACT same departure/arrival times as the U.S.Airways flights..even the same layover/connection in Charlotte....after printing out the reservation I noticed that, although the FLT#s were different...the fine print said "our partner airline, us. airways"...so we are gonna be flying on the originally quoted flights after all ...for $800 less!! I wonder why the industry works that way...it was just a fluke of luck for us...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Captain Oil

matrix.itasoftware.com is the ONLY place to search airfare

---

I might be wrong, but I believe Google Flights uses the same software as ITA and allows you to book your flights with one click....

It also lets you enter a range of days and quickly adjust the routes/prices depending on what you want.

If anyone is traveling near the end of the year, it can be worth it to pick up an entertainment book( they go as low as $6 and there is also fatwallet(a deal site) cash back), as hotwire and other travel sites do $10-20 rebates.

Blake you are correct about Google Flight using same software ............ Google has purchased ITA so that makes sense ............. however I do not see the same functionality on Google Flights ........... ITA allows you to put in a range of number of days for your stay ......... such as 8-11 days ............ enter your day of departure earlier then your ideal date ............ you will get a 30 day calender listing all flights prices for stays of 8-11 days for a 30 day period ......this will allow you to find the best deals by just moving your ideal dates forward or backwards or extend your stay to maximize your vacation value.