The Bobcat Nation

My wife and I are planning a trip out east this summer (end of July) to D.C., Philly, NYC, and maybe Boston if we have time. I’m just now starting to conduct very preliminary research on flights and hotels. I plan to search all of the staple websites (Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Priceline, Hotwire, Kayak…etc), but I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to what they’ve had the best experiences with.

Also, I think someone once told me about a website who guarantees the lowest airfare. So if I purchased a ticket for $500 and two months later it dropped to $350, I could contact them and they would honor the $350 price. Does anyone know anything about that for Flights or Hotels?

Thanks,

wbtfg wrote:My wife and I are planning a trip out east this summer (end of July) to D.C., Philly, NYC, and maybe Boston if we have time. I’m just now starting to conduct very preliminary research on flights and hotels. I plan to search all of the staple websites (Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Priceline, Hotwire, Kayak…etc), but I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to what they’ve had the best experiences with.

Also, I think someone once told me about a website who guarantees the lowest airfare. So if I purchased a ticket for $500 and two months later it dropped to $350, I could contact them and they would honor the $350 price. Does anyone know anything about that for Flights or Hotels?

Thanks,

Be real careful regarding flights. Especially when fights change. We did some air tickets through priceline to Florida on United Air. About two weeks before we were to leave United Air pulled their flights out of Ft Lauderdale. It was an extreme hassle to get those tickets changed because US Air (who took over for UA flights) wouldn't honor the UA flights done through priceline. It took a ton of patience (and screaming) to finally get everything straightend out. I think I was on hold with them one time for 4 hours. My wife was on hold another time with them for six hours. Priceline blamed US and UA and the airlines blamed Priceline. Big mess and will go through a travel agent or direct through the airlines from now on.

I have used Cheap Tickets a few times for flights and have not had any trouble with them at all.

I use Orbitz alot. Good breaks on hotel + flight. Disadvantage, you don't have a lot of pull with the hotel once you get there, asking for a double instead of a single, etc. You can't choose on Orbitz, and you get whatever the hotel assigns.

Also, whichever site you use, Google "__________ promo codes". A lot of time you can get $150 or more off hotel & air packages.

canyoncat wrote:

wbtfg wrote:My wife and I are planning a trip out east this summer (end of July) to D.C., Philly, NYC, and maybe Boston if we have time. I’m just now starting to conduct very preliminary research on flights and hotels. I plan to search all of the staple websites (Travelocity, Cheap Tickets, Priceline, Hotwire, Kayak…etc), but I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to what they’ve had the best experiences with.

Also, I think someone once told me about a website who guarantees the lowest airfare. So if I purchased a ticket for $500 and two months later it dropped to $350, I could contact them and they would honor the $350 price. Does anyone know anything about that for Flights or Hotels?

Thanks,

Be real careful regarding flights. Especially when fights change. We did some air tickets through priceline to Florida on United Air. About two weeks before we were to leave United Air pulled their flights out of Ft Lauderdale. It was an extreme hassle to get those tickets changed because US Air (who took over for UA flights) wouldn't honor the UA flights done through priceline. It took a ton of patience (and screaming) to finally get everything straightend out. I think I was on hold with them one time for 4 hours. My wife was on hold another time with them for six hours. Priceline blamed US and UA and the airlines blamed Priceline. Big mess and will go through a travel agent or direct through the airlines from now on.

I had a similar problem with Expedia…..

The travel sites are nice in that you can compare different flights/airlines/prices against one another. Now what I do is use the travel web sites to find the flights/prices that I want. Then book the actual flight through the airline which offers that flight/price. That way I have more rights with the airline, if they do decide to change flights later. A lesson learned the hard way.

I do the same. After a few bad experiences (particularly with hotels: terrible rooms, no pull at the counter, etc) I always check those sites to find the best fares and rates, and then I book directly at the company's website. It's rare that I don't find the same price offered on their site, but if I don't, a simple call to them will almost always get them to honor whatever price you see.

I use hotwire and priceline for rental cars with great success, but I don't like using them for hotels because when I'm on vacation, time is more valuable to me than a few bucks, and I want to stay where I can maximize my sight-seeing time.

Cheapoair dot com is what I use.

Working in the hotel industry I can give you a few pointers but I don't want the rif-raf like alpha knowing them haha

Use Tripadvisor (tripadvisor.com), you can sign up and they will send you airfare discounts weekly. Use this knowledge to look for flights on the airline website (united, delta, etc). For the most part you do not get much of a break by using the third party sites (Expedia, Orbitz, etc) because once they add their fees you are essentially paying the same as on the airline sites.

If you don't have time restrictions for your in or out bound flights then bid your own price on priceline, but be aware that they can change those times at any time and then you are stuck.

I would not recommend purchasing your airline and hotel together on a site like Orbitz, etc because you generally will not have the option to choose between hotels nor do you really end up saving money. Again check out the hotel site hilton.com, etc as most now also provide the lowest price guaranteed on their own site as well. Even if they don't you at least can compare how nice a discount you are getting, for example it may appear you are getting a steal of a deal on Orbitz but if you look at the hotel site it may only be 12-15% discount off their regular rates, which you could negotiate on your own with the hotel and have more flexibility for special requests.

BigBruceBaker wrote:Working in the hotel industry I can give you a few pointers but I don't want the rif-raf like alpha knowing them haha

Oh c'mon cleaning lady, give up the tid-bits.

I like LMD myself.