Surf Your Way To A Cheaper Getaway
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Spending a little time on the Internet can really pay off when planning your next vacation and accompanying flight. NY1's Valarie D'Elia filed the following report.With the increase in oil prices, experts say airfares could be up as much as 20 percent as the summer travel season gets underway. Here’s some tips on how to book your hard-earned vacation without breaking the bank.
A good starting point with airfares is with the meta-search engines such as Kayak.com and momondo.com. They are “aggregators” that compare fares from hundreds of travel sites and lead you to the best deals.
Then there are the online travel agencies, or OTA’s, such as Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity where you can make a direct booking. The only caveat here is that not all airlines list their flights with them so your next step should be to go directly to the airlines’ sites, because some keep all their fares proprietary, and many offer exclusive fares they don’t share with third parties.
Most of the travel websites let you sign up for airfare alerts to keep you apprised of upcoming random sales or alert you to drops in price on your particular route.
One of the most popular alert services comes from airfarewatchdog.com, a fare listing website that hand picks deals for you.
It pays to be social media savvy as well, as most airlines and OTA’s have Twitter and Facebook accounts that offer fans or followers special codes and deals.
Travelers with a lot of flexibility might want to consider the opaque booking sites such as priceline.com and hotwire.com. Each provides cheap flights, hotels and cars if you agree to buy before knowing the provider, and in the case of airline tickets, the number of connections or exact time of departure.
One website is the online version of a crystal ball: www.bing.com/travel claims to predict when you should buy your ticket.
And what happens if you book a flight and the price goes down? Yapta.com will track your flight and alert you if it tumbles enough that a refund makes sense, minus the change fees.
Finally, don’t count out travel agents. If you have a more complex itinerary, they can steer you to a package deal that includes airfare and their fee could be worth the savings.