Cheap Travel Deals Guidelines: Ways to Obtain Affordable Airfare, Accommodation, & More

You don’t have to blow your budget on your next trip. It’s not necessary to spend more than you really need on travel expenses. From booking airfare to shopping, there are always cheap travel deals available. Travel sites make it easy to find inexpensive accommodation in your desired area. You can easily compare various airfare offers between any two destinations as well.

Whether you want to go on a cruise, a big city trip, beach vacation, ski resort getaway, etc… , here are a few things you can do to get cheap travel deals:

• Try mixing and matching your flights. Some online booking sites provide flexible search tools that allow users to experiment with destinations, departure cities, dates, and number of stops. Sometimes it’s cheaper to book flights that include a stop or two. It’ll take you longer to get there but it is often less costly than a direct flight.

• Always consider alternatives. This includes alternative airports, neighborhoods, ground transportation options, and so forth. Even if there is an airport within a few minutes from your home, you might be able to save more money by flying out of another airport. Also, you don’t have to stay right in the middle of a popular tourist spot; consider staying at a hotel or inn in another neighborhood.

• Consider an apartment rental. Over the last few years, it has become very trendy for travelers to opt for accommodation at places that aren’t typical hotels. You might find a better deal renting a small apartment or even just a private room. Do a bit of research on the owner(s) and read reviews beforehand.

• Find out if you can use any affiliations for cheap travel deals. Students, government employees, seniors, military members, members of particular groups or organizations, etc. are often able to obtain discounts from airlines and hotels. Check with your employer to find out if members of your organization are eligible for any travel discounts. Take advantage of any travel rewards points you might have with your credit card companies as well.

• Keep an eye out for last-minute deals. Cheap travel deals aren’t always available at the last minute, so if your travel dates and itinerary are already set in stone this probably isn’t the best idea for you. If you have flexibility, however, it’s probably worth it to check out the “Last-Minute Deals” section of your favorite travel site, or to sign up to receive newsletters and alerts.

Conclusion

These are just a few things to keep in mind when you are trying to find cheap travel deals.

Many people like to start their search online. Travel websites work with many airlines, cruise lines, car rental companies, hotels, B&Bs, and other travel-related companies to bring affordable deals to tourists and business travelers alike. If you’re after cheap travel deals, you can use an online coupon code to get additional savings.

Cheapest Airline Tickets – How to Find Best Travel Deals

So you are in the market for cheap airline tickets, but not sure where to start and how to find the best travel deals. The reality is that in order to find the cheapest flight fares and schedules you need to know when and where to look and how to search. Yes, it is that easy, and all you need to know is several tricks. First of all, do you need a domestic or an international travel ticket?

Domestic Air Travel

These can be US domestic flight or flights within Europe, or within any country or other continent. If you are looking great flight deals, you need to know WHERE to look for low airfares. If you are looking for flights within the US, you may contact local US airlines or travel agencies or look up flights on the online travel search engine.

Airlines compete among each other and they can give great flight deals (just know WHEN to look). Travel agencies might also find you great deals. Here is the truth… lately several airlines and several large and well known travel agencies started having some issues and several airline banned those huge agencies from selling their airline tickets. Therefore, small and specialized agencies still do have very good contracts with major airlines of the world. So, my advise is to look who has the best flight deal, not at the size of the agency or the popularity. At the end of the day, it matters how much you pay for the ticket and that you have a confirmed seat.

Most smaller travel agencies have online only booking so they can save YOU money by eliminating staff salaries. Most of the time travel agencies use the same fares as airlines offer (unless negotiated better rates), but usually with 0 commission. Since agencies need to survive, they are forced to add a small service fee on the top of the ticket price. If you do not mind that, call your travel agent or best of all go online and check flights yourself. If you are traveling within Europe, you might want to contact a travel agent or search online travel agents’ websites first. In Europe local travel agencies and agencies outside Europe that specialize in international travel will have low fares because they use very low so called consolidator fares. This is nothing else, but negotiated contracts with airlines to sell special very low priced airline tickets.

International Travel

Whether you live in the US or other country, you travel internationally if you leave your country of residence.

What concerns transatlantic, transpacific or other between countries international travel, your best bet is a travel agency. The consolidators will offer you the best fare deals and will find you the best schedules. Depending on personal preferences, some might prefer talking to a travel agent, while others would want to do their own fare search online at their own pace. There is no right or wrong choice here. As long as you find a flight and a fare that works for you, you succeed. HOW to find a travel agency or a good travel website Always work with the travel agent or travel website that specializes in your travel destination or region. For example, if you need to fly from the US to Europe, search for ‘flights to Europe’ or so. Usually online search will give you best results. Check several websites or call several travel agents and compare the deals.

NOTE, you might know lots of huge agencies like Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. They might seem attractive to you because they are big and well known. But they will not always give you the best flight, hotel or cruise deals. They might be good for US domestic travel, but not always for international travel.

HOW and WHEN to search for best fares

Where you need a flight, hotel or a cruise, you need to know how to find the best fares and when to look for those. Let’s say that you found a travel agent or travel website that specialized in your travel destination.

5 tips on How to Find your Best Travel Deal:

Be Flexible. In order to find lowest price, you might need to be flexible on travel dates, arrival/departure times, airlines, and sometimes destinations. In short, there are different price levels for every flight and the only difference is the price and number of seats an airline assigns to that price level. Therefore, all depends on when you buy a ticket, how popular is the destination, travel season (peak or low), and how full the flight gets.
Book domestic travel tickets as early as you can (this applied to some international travel as well). Most domestic airlines have best fares with 21, 14, and 7 day advance purchase. This means that you may find lower fares when booking (= purchasing) a flight this many days before the flight.
‘Play’ with the search. This means that you need to be creative when searching for flights. Check flights couple days or weeks (if possible) earlier and later, check various airlines, different connections (an airline might have several hubs or fly with 1 or several connections), search based on price and try searching based on schedule (you’ll see different results).
Check travel package deals. If the purpose of your travel is vacation, instead of booking flights, hotel, and car rental separately, check on travel package rates. Sometimes your total package rate is lower that if you book everything separately.
Use miles or points when possible. Apply for airline/ hotel/ car rental, etc. frequent traveler programs. They are FREE, and you can get lots of benefits. For example, I cannot remember the last time I paid for a hotel room when Hilton Hotel is in my destination. Check out hiltonhhonors.com website. Go to the airline, car rental, or hotel websites and sign up. The only disadvantage of using miles and points is that you need to book your travel early as there is limited number of seats for miles or points on the plane and they go fast.
If you cannot decide whether to use an airline or a travel agent, here are some suggestions.

AIRLINE vs. TRAVEL AGENT/AGENCY WEBSITE

Advantages of booking a ticket with an airline:

you are talking directly to the carrier, the entity responsible for a flight
it may take much less time to deal with the airline directly (if an agent knows his/her job)
airline customers representatives are usually open 24/7
Advantages of using travel agents or travel websites:

lower negotiated (consolidator) fares
more flight options; travel agents/travel websites search all possible airlines, not just one
low fares available 24/7 given that an agency has a online booking system
Please send in your comments on how you find your best deals, and I shall be happy to share them with the rest of the world. Good luck!

Renata M.

Choosing the Right All Inclusive Travel Deals

People travel for numerous reasons. Either they serve a professional purpose or they are searching for places in which they can just relax and have fun. For that, they are always in the lookout for things that would make their travel experiences worthwhile. This is why convenience and budget are very much considered by any type of traveller. Luckily, there are now all inclusive travel deals being offered both online and offline. These are deals that you can check out when you are looking for service providers who can book and reserve an entire trip for you. But why should you really want all inclusive travel deals?

One reason you should choose all inclusive travel deals is that they cut your expenses by a really wide margin. Definitely, the “all inclusive” phrase refers a lot to the amount of money you have to spend for your travels. Especially if you are travelling to a foreign land, you can expect to be charged with exorbitant fees and humongous bills. Local travels are just as expensive. Therefore, what you should look for are travel arrangements that will provide everything you need for the entire trip-fare, hotel, food, and local tripping among others.

In this case, you need a travel agent who can make arrangements for your trip. If you consider it closely, you would find that the deals your agent offers are priced cheaper than when you spend on separate arrangements on your own. For example, a package of both the fare and the accommodations is a lot cheaper than if you buy a plane ticket and book a hotel separately. This may be brought by the fact that travel agencies have ties with other service providers. But surely, they can get arrangements done fast and cheap.

Another reason you can have for choosing all inclusive travel deals is that you need not to worry about making separate arrangements to cover for everything that you will need for your trip. This goes very much like the first reason except that you refer more to the effort of arranging a trip than to the amount you will be spending. Truly, all inclusive travel deals lessen your TTDs (things-to-do) when planning a trip.

Almost all travel agencies are reliable in this particular task. They enable you to come out with a scheduled flight, full hotel accommodation, and even a complete local itinerary before you even fly out to your destination. When you try to arrange for everything individually, you will have difficulties because service providers like airlines and hotels are not easily contacted. Further, you cannot book the trip on your preferred customized schedule-and this is very possible with the help of travel agents.

Finally, if you are asking why you choose all inclusive travel deals, then you should understand that these arrangements would help you go to more places than you originally plan to be in. Well, if you consider how much time and money you are saving from one trip to another when you choose all inclusive travel deals, then you would know this last reason is very valid. After two or three trips, you would be surprised to know that you have saved a good enough sum for yet another travel.

This is a perk of all inclusive travel deals that many people like because everyone loves a good travel experience. It broadens your mind and exposes you to different societies. Therefore, you need to choose travel deals that would help you plan more than a couple of travels without requiring you to pay for huge amounts.

Travel Deals – Getting The Most From Your Travel Discounts

There are many reasons why firms offer reduced, or discounted travel deals, ranging from flights, up to packages which include several components, all inclusive in one price.

One of the main reasons for travel deals is the unsold places. Competition can also play a part in further reductions in list prices.

Before giving you a whole list of tips to get the best travel deals and discounts, I want to show you a amazingly simple but brilliant technique that you can use pretty much in most places and for most products and services.

I have used the technique all over the place it works so well it is almost unbelievable. But it is so simple that you may dismiss it without trying. I want you to be mentally prepared and be willing to give it a try, so here we go.

To get a discount or a bargain in most places, even in a high class boutique or a high street store, what you need to do is: “ASK”. Yes, just “ask”. But also I want you to remember, as they say, “… it is not what you say, but the way you say it …” that really counts.

So, to get a discount, you need to keep your intention to ‘buy’ to yourself until you’re ready to make your payment. You must always appear like you’re not convinced yet and that if the sales person doesn’t “do better” “he will lose” the deal. But you should also seem reasonably interested or else the sales person will think you’re not serious and therefore he won’t try to sweeten the deal for you.

OK, so how do you do all of the above? Easy and this is how I’ve done it for travel deals all the way to buying just 2 shirts at an up market men’s boutique – yes for just 2 shirts:

* I get information on the various options (be it travel deals or shirts).

* I decide what I want but will only – and this is the very important part – tell the sales person about a portion of what I want. So I may show interest in just one shirt or a holiday for 2 people and not 4.

* I ask all my questions and show that it is just what I want (so the sales person knows he almost has sale) but …

* I indicate that I’m not happy with the price. For example I may have seen something similar cheaper elsewhere. Or that I am prepared to go shopping around (all sales people know, if the customer walks out they usually will not come back). Or that I have the money (you’ll see why next) but had not planned on spending that much.

* I let the sales person try to ‘sell me the IDEA’ that it is OK to buy the product. Sometimes, they offer some free product (e.g. a pair of socks or tickets for a gallery or some show while on holiday). Then I ‘ask’ for the discount but make it clear that I will definitely buy if they give me the discount. This is how I ‘ask’ …

* “Look I’ll definitely take it at $X”. The sales person then says “… so you want $Y off the price?!”. They may tell you they don’t normally offer a discount outside of the sales season, etc. If they are very confident about not offering discounts, I then say “ok, I’ll take 2 shirts … this one and … that one, only if you give me them at $Z for both …”.

* At this stage the sales person may even say he hasn’t the authority to offer discounts. No problem, I ask them to speak to their boss. I have done this lots of times and get this: 90% of the time the boss agrees to the discount. Of the remaining 10% at least half the time, the boss offers me a counter discount which is a not as good as what I asked for but still pretty good.

Do you want to know the kind of discounts I’ve had? Well, on two shirts worth $62 I got $22 off. That is around 35%! On a travel package worth around $4,300, I got about $600 off but wait for it … I also got an upgrade from a deluxe room to a business suite in the same 5 star hotel. That suite was worth $800 per night and the deluxe room was worth $250 per night!

I had to explain the above details at length but all that I did was to display that I ‘WILL’ buy with a discount. They knew all they had to do was just one thing: give me a discount, so they did it. I made it, as they say, “a no brainer” for them.

In short just “ask” but (a) be realistic (let them make a little profit, don’t ask for 80% off) and (b) have a little flexibility as a backup plan (be ready to tell them that you’ll buy more, e.g. 2 shirts or a holiday for 4. Hey, even the sales people like to think they have got a concession form you … it is not a one-way street).

This technique works for almost everything but also works extremely well for travel bargains too. So lets get back to more tips specific to travel deals then.

Travel bargains, discounts and deals are all around you because we all travel regularly and repeatedly for holidays as well as for business and of course the travel industry competes for our dollars. Nevertheless, some research and being alert to travel deals can mean more substantial savings. Here’s how to spot and get the best travel deals:

* Booking as early as possible usually entitles you to some travel discount.

* If you’re buying more than one ticket, a further travel discount is possible.

* Be flexible. Sometimes weekend flights can be cheaper than weekdays (less business travellers).

* Flights departing later at night can be cheaper.

* Depending on your timetable, consider indirect flights, which take longer, but are probably cheaper, as opposed to direct flights.

* Travelling other than peak periods, such as schools holidays and public holidays will probably be heaper.

* More often than not, holiday packages are cheaper than buying the components separately.

* Compare prices online, by phone, or visit individual travel agents in the high street.

* As all airlines overbook, consider taking a later flight which usually comes with sweeteners from the airline in the form of further travel discounts, and travel vouchers.

* It may also be possible to travel on ‘stand by’, but it means that you’ll be called with very little notice

* If you’re lucky, it may be possible to travel as a ‘courier’. Some firms will pay, or subsidise your airfare in return for carrying important packages and letters.

* Buy travel insurance that best suits your circumstances. In case of emergencies it’ll save you lots of money.

The more time and effort you devote, the better travel deals you’ll bag. In many instances the saving could be quite substantial. So much so that you may be able to add on extra days stay. Happy travel deals.

Sami T Fab operates a dedicated travel and vacation information website packed full of free travel tips and informative content.

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