- Joined
- Oct 13, 2010
- Messages
- 10,776
I saw Delta offered Atlanta to San Juan PR for $302 R/T and so checked Kayak from Charlotte to PR and it was $387...not bad. But what caught my eye was a pitch to bundle hotel and air to save lots of money.
So I did a Priceline package deal (picking my own hotel, but a range of times for the flight), and it came up to $1871 for the "package"* for seven nights. Priceline "snuck-in" a crappy return flight on me somehow.
Then I went to Kayak for air and Hotwire for hotel, and I got it for $1735 buying separately. And I did keep drilling into the reservation until they gave me the final-final prices, with all the extra hotel fees.
So I'm left wondering, why buy a package deal if it isn't less money? Are there ways to sort through this more quickly than doing this kind of digging?
I use Deal News for electronics, and that will give a rating of how good of a deal certain things are. Is there something like that for travel? I'm not a shopper, so going through umpteen iterations until I learn what is a good deal and what is not is like pulling teeth. Is there were a no-brainer way to do travel like there is for electronics?
* I ran the same Priceline search again, and it came up to over $1900 (didn't look at the flights). I ran it a third time and it came to $1811, and they replace the crappy flight with a normal one. Seems like Priceline is playing games with its customers, which makes shopping for travel even more burdensome.
So I did a Priceline package deal (picking my own hotel, but a range of times for the flight), and it came up to $1871 for the "package"* for seven nights. Priceline "snuck-in" a crappy return flight on me somehow.
Then I went to Kayak for air and Hotwire for hotel, and I got it for $1735 buying separately. And I did keep drilling into the reservation until they gave me the final-final prices, with all the extra hotel fees.
So I'm left wondering, why buy a package deal if it isn't less money? Are there ways to sort through this more quickly than doing this kind of digging?
I use Deal News for electronics, and that will give a rating of how good of a deal certain things are. Is there something like that for travel? I'm not a shopper, so going through umpteen iterations until I learn what is a good deal and what is not is like pulling teeth. Is there were a no-brainer way to do travel like there is for electronics?
* I ran the same Priceline search again, and it came up to over $1900 (didn't look at the flights). I ran it a third time and it came to $1811, and they replace the crappy flight with a normal one. Seems like Priceline is playing games with its customers, which makes shopping for travel even more burdensome.