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Old 06-18-2021, 11:30 AM   #21
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My wife gets Scott's Cheap Flight emails, and they come up with some deals.

DW came up with $422 round trip flights a year ago to Berlin thru Ovago.com. The flights were cancelled and Ovago wouldn't even answer their phones. I finally got the AA return airfare sent to Ovago, and they sat on my $ for 7 months. They finally charged us $200 service fees to pay us back.

We'll only purchase airfares directly with airlines in the future. If you sign up with their frequent flyer programs (free), airlines will email you deep discount airfares weekly.

Note: I'm a MatrixITA user too--to keep up with the best fares and shortest flight times. Normal European airfares are now about $1050, but they get down to the $800's on some days of the month.

The State Dept. directives right now are to delay European trips with Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland being more risky than the rest of Europe. Greece & Spain may be open to tourists with conditions.
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Old 06-18-2021, 01:27 PM   #22
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For LC airlines in Europe and in Asia we find Skyscanner to be much better that itmatrix or google.

We sometimes find routes, flights, one way fares that are reflected in either itmatrix or google air. Not certain why this is.
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Old 06-19-2021, 07:58 PM   #23
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My favourite travel deal is YVRdeals.com which identifies cheap flights and mistake fares from Vancouver (YVR) and other nearby airports like Seattle and Bellingham. They also have sister sites for deals flying out of the other major Canadian cities like YYZdeals.com, YULdeals.com, etc. They only post very good deals and the better the deal, the less time you have to act of course.

The best deal the missus and I were able to take advantage of was a mistake fare that Delta ridiculously honoured flying return from YVR to LAX for $0 + $65 taxes and fees per person!
Just a reminder about mistake fares: DO NOT CALL/EMAIL AND ASK IF THIS IS A MISTAKE FARE. If the fare goes through, great. If it doesn't get honoured, oh well. In this instance, Delta acutally called me and said they were honouring the fare but asked if we would mind changing to a different departure time which actually worked out better for us.

I also leverage Flyertalk and Redflagdeals.
I used to enjoy Travelzoo a lot more but I felt the deals they were posting started to be only ok over the years.

Haven't found a great site for amazing cruise deals only standard cruise deals.
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Old 06-19-2021, 08:22 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by brett View Post
For LC airlines in Europe and in Asia we find Skyscanner to be much better that itmatrix or google.

We sometimes find routes, flights, one way fares that are reflected in either itmatrix or google air. Not certain why this is.
I also like FareBoom for international travel.
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Old 06-19-2021, 11:30 PM   #25
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Pre covid we have had some amazing deals on Priceline. In the US, in Canada, and in Europe (mostly London, LHR, LGW, Paris, and once in Milan and Lisbon (struck out everywhere else in Europe that have bid) Overall quite a few of them were Marriott wins.

If we see a property on a site like Booking we will try to find the owner and deal direct. Not unusual for us to score a 30 point discount when we do this and pay for cash. Last trip to Greece we paid cash, direct to the owner 250E vs the Booking price of 350E. Everyone wants cash. Especially true in Thailand, Greece, and Italy.

When we were in Thailand we were given the tip never to pay adult fare for a tour. Insist on the children's rate. Worked like a charm for the past 5 years. Domestic airline fares in Turkey booked on a Turkish site were 30 percent less that international sites. Same for some Greece fares and some Mexican fares over the past few years.

It takes some work and exchanging tips with fellow travellers.


How do you try to get to the owner directly? We used Booking.com quite a bit for our 2018 trip to Greece and the rates were pretty good, but I’m sure would have been better if we could have gone direct. We stayed at small properties with less than 10 rooms.
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Old 06-20-2021, 08:11 AM   #26
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Correct, and Google Flights is much easier to use
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Originally Posted by audreyh1 View Post
Google Flights uses Matrix AFAIK.
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Old 06-20-2021, 08:41 AM   #27
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How do you try to get to the owner directly? We used Booking.com quite a bit for our 2018 trip to Greece and the rates were pretty good, but I’m sure would have been better if we could have gone direct. We stayed at small properties with less than 10 rooms.
If I know the name and location of the property, I usually find them quite easily with a simple web search. Usually find their web page with contact info.

Have done this many times.
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Old 06-20-2021, 08:45 AM   #28
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I book directly with airlines, hotels, rental car companies for the best deals. After all the issues last year getting refunds on travel cancelled by the airlines last year, I will never use third party travel sites such as Expedia.
Not to derail this thread, but I give a big thumbs up to this advice.

After getting jerked around earlier this year on a hotel booking by a third party travel site, the hotel manager told me the same thing: Just book directly.
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Old 06-20-2021, 09:00 AM   #29
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Yes, we’ve booked directly for years. If something happens the third party can make resolving the issue difficult. Especially overseas. I’d read too many people complaining about screwups.

Starting out way back (late 90s, 2000) I used Expedia a lot. We arrived at a hotel once, and Expedia hadn’t sent them our reservation! Some scrambling, the hotel was pretty full, but fortunately we had arrived early for check-in.

Also another time an airline CSR pointed out that changing seats is free if I book directly. I think at the time Expedia had said online that they couldn’t assign seats. So I called the airline.

We usually use Costco for car rental US, but they provide the reservation number of the rental company so I can go to their site and check that all is well.
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Old 06-20-2021, 01:31 PM   #30
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How do you try to get to the owner directly? We used Booking.com quite a bit for our 2018 trip to Greece and the rates were pretty good, but I’m sure would have been better if we could have gone direct. We stayed at small properties with less than 10 rooms.
We google the name, try tipadviser, etc. We typically stay at small properties as well.

Another thing we do is start with tripadvisor. B&Bs, inns, etc. Sometimes someone has include the owners email. Sometime we just take a chance and input the name of the hotel followed by .gr for Greece. We have been doing the exact same in Thailand for the past five years.

We are fairly flexible and often do not book terribly far ahead. IF we are unsure of a new place we may book for one night. IF we want to stay longer we either approach the owner or another place nearby. Cash. But...whenever possible we look at the room before parting with our cash.

On our last trip to Greece and Cyprus we did five flights on Aegean/Olympic. Four of the flights were booked anywhere from 2-6 days in advance. We checked prices on google air, direct with Aegean/Olympic and with expedia. Incredibly, two of the flights, same for same, were 25-40 percent less expensive when we booked on Expedia.

We found exactly the same on a number of domestic flights in Mexico booked on winter 2020 trip. Not certain why this is. We would not have booked on expedia for a small delta or if the flight was a long way off.
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Old 06-20-2021, 01:46 PM   #31
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Originally Posted by YVRRocketSurgery View Post
My favourite travel deal is YVRdeals.com which identifies cheap flights and mistake fares from Vancouver (YVR) and other nearby airports like Seattle and Bellingham. They also have sister sites for deals flying out of the other major Canadian cities like YYZdeals.com, YULdeals.com, etc. They only post very good deals and the better the deal, the less time you have to act of course.

The best deal the missus and I were able to take advantage of was a mistake fare that Delta ridiculously honoured flying return from YVR to LAX for $0 + $65 taxes and fees per person!
Just a reminder about mistake fares: DO NOT CALL/EMAIL AND ASK IF THIS IS A MISTAKE FARE. If the fare goes through, great. If it doesn't get honoured, oh well. In this instance, Delta acutally called me and said they were honouring the fare but asked if we would mind changing to a different departure time which actually worked out better for us.

I also leverage Flyertalk and Redflagdeals.
I used to enjoy Travelzoo a lot more but I felt the deals they were posting started to be only ok over the years.

Haven't found a great site for amazing cruise deals only standard cruise deals.
We also use YYC deals. We also use YVR and YYZ deals since we can fly out of those gateways as well. We have has some excellent deals on flights to Asia based on a YYC deals heads up.
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Old 06-20-2021, 02:53 PM   #32
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We did a late booking cruise Australia/NZ cruise. Our on line NA TA gave us a price. THen we called the RCI office in Sydney, Australia.

We booked that cruise with the Australian office for a saving of just over 30 percent for the same cabin, same date, same ship. One phone call.

Did exactly the same on some Aerolineas flights in Argentina. Called down to their call center in BA instead of booking on the web or with their 1-800 North America number. Better choice of flights and 30-35 lower price.

Needed a one way flight to Istanbul for my inlaws. Found one quickly on BA from a consolidator. Exactly half the price of the airline or other on line booking shops.

A safari was at the top of DW's list when we retired. Started dealing with a local TA who supposedly specialized. We were not getting the data we needed. Checked on tripadvisor for a name. Started dealing with a tour firm in South Africa direct. We got accurate information and a much better price. We originally delayed this trip because the SA rand was going dow.. Delaying a year saved us 15-18 percent on the currency. Made a difference to the cost of our three week stay.

Our practice was to book NA rental cars through Costco. Better price than my corporate rate. In Europe, we have always found autoeurope to be the best. But on our last pre covid trip to Greece and Cyprus we had five different rentals. Prices were all over the place. We rented from autoeurope, one direct with Budget, one through Aegean Air, and one with a local on the island. The prices for each rental were all over the map.
Lookin at South Africa when possible... would you be so kind as to share the name of the tour firm?
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Old 06-20-2021, 03:46 PM   #33
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I am not Brett but we did a great tour through Namibia with Gemma Dry of Discover Namibia tours.
They are based in SA, arrange tours in both countries and Gemma gives some advice on the Trip Advisor forums for SA and Namibia.
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Old 06-20-2021, 03:56 PM   #34
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Not to derail this thread, but I give a big thumbs up to this advice.

After getting jerked around earlier this year on a hotel booking by a third party travel site, the hotel manager told me the same thing: Just book directly.
We normally book directly but last year Expedia had a business class fare deal for a flight from LAX to GVA via LHR with Virgin Atlantic and British Airways for $2498 return. We bought the same flights from Expedia in 2019 but for $2894 return (which was a good deal then). It was much more expensive booking directly with the airlines for whatever reasons. The airlines cancelled the flights and Expedia went out of their way not to issue any refunds. It took over four months to get our $4996 refund and I had to deal with VA and BA directly. I have used Expedia for over 20 years to book hotel rooms when they offer rooms at lower prices than booking directly. It should be noted that many airlines such as Air Canada, United, American, and Delta still have not refunded travelers for flights the airlines cancelled. To make matters worse, in many cases the flight credit vouchers they issued to passengers are about to expire. The other lesson from last year is that I will not book trips six months in advance. It will be six weeks maximum. Car rentals will always be direct especially in Europe.
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Old 06-20-2021, 07:17 PM   #35
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Lookin at South Africa when possible... would you be so kind as to share the name of the tour firm?
We used Wildwings from SA. They also have Facebook page. Highly recommend Simon as tour guide. He is one of the owners. They also arrange our travel in Chobe, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

We dealt with them directly.
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Old 06-21-2021, 09:09 AM   #36
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On the calling +1 our favorite little place at PDC I scored a great package on Expedia...
I think the discount was mainly on the hotel end.. the head guy at the hotel mentioned to me at checkout that they would match or beat any package price for the room. I think he said Expedia keeps like 30% of the hotel nightly price as a fee.
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Old 06-21-2021, 09:52 AM   #37
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Lookin at South Africa when possible... would you be so kind as to share the name of the tour firm?
Not sure what your plans are. SA was part of an extended trip for us. We got very good one way air from Milan to J'burg (where we met our guide) and back from Cape Town to Rome. KLM often has good fares from NA to South Africa.

When the safari was finished we flew to Port Elizabeth and rented a car for ten days. Toured on our own and dropped it off in Cape Town. We spend four days there. Beautiful city.
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Old 06-22-2021, 04:13 PM   #38
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Have any of you used https://www.vacationstogo.com/ ?
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Old 06-22-2021, 05:48 PM   #39
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Have any of you used https://www.vacationstogo.com/ ?


Yes, we have used them once or twice to book cruises. Very easy and got a good deal. No problems. I can’t say whether they would be as helpful as a traditional travel agent if any issues were encountered such as missed flights or something like that, since we didn’t have any problems. I would use them again.
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Old 06-22-2021, 05:49 PM   #40
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We google the name, try tipadviser, etc. We typically stay at small properties as well.

Another thing we do is start with tripadvisor. B&Bs, inns, etc. Sometimes someone has include the owners email. Sometime we just take a chance and input the name of the hotel followed by .gr for Greece. We have been doing the exact same in Thailand for the past five years.

We are fairly flexible and often do not book terribly far ahead. IF we are unsure of a new place we may book for one night. IF we want to stay longer we either approach the owner or another place nearby. Cash. But...whenever possible we look at the room before parting with our cash.

On our last trip to Greece and Cyprus we did five flights on Aegean/Olympic. Four of the flights were booked anywhere from 2-6 days in advance. We checked prices on google air, direct with Aegean/Olympic and with expedia. Incredibly, two of the flights, same for same, were 25-40 percent less expensive when we booked on Expedia.

We found exactly the same on a number of domestic flights in Mexico booked on winter 2020 trip. Not certain why this is. We would not have booked on expedia for a small delta or if the flight was a long way off.


Thank you for sharing this information. You are my travel idol!
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