Where do you get your BEST travel deals?

[vafoodie]

Now that DH is retired, we are looking forward to taking advantage of those deals that we used to just look at longingly. I get Travelzoo newsletters, Gate 1 and Sherman. Anywhere else I should look?

 

[braumeister]

Travel With Alan!
and
https://www.vacationstogo.com
both seem to be very popular and often have some stunning deals.

 

[njhowie]

Have to check all over the place as different deals pop up in different places. Usually Southwest is my go-to for domestic air, however, their prices have been quite high over the past several months. Got decent fares on JetBlue and United for upcoming travel. I did book DW and a colleague of hers on Southwest for an upcoming conference they have in New Orleans - LGA-MSY was very good compared to what the other airlines were offering at the time from all the local airports.

For rental cars, always start with Autoslash.

Hotels, I always start with expedia-aarp.com and then branch out to the hotel websites to look for better deals. Periodically will take an Express Deal from Priceline - have always had good results when using it.

 

[OldShooter]

We use travel companies in the destination country wherever possible and negotiate cash prices where we can. Most of what we do is custom travel, not groups. We also use AirBNB almost exclusively.

 

[brett]

^+1

We just arranged a 10 day AI in Puerta Vallarta. Did our own air.

Booked the hotel thru TUI in the UK. We have done this is the past. Less expensive than buying from a NA travel site.

 

[Bamaman]

My wife stays up nights looking for cheap airfares. 1 Travel, VacationstoGo.com for cruises, Groupon, LowFares.com, Momando.com and DollarFlightClub.com are what she uses. She receives Emails from them often.

I watch ITA Matrix closely, and find the lowest airfares are not necessarily the best value. The time in the air, time sitting in airports and when a flight arrives is also important. I also avoid flying through some airports--like O'Hare and JFK. After a recent flight to London thru Charlotte, we're not Charlotte Airport fans either.

And as experienced international travelers, we seldom pay over 50% of normal airfares. We most often travel before 4/1 or 6/1 or in October and November to get lower flights.

 

[DrRoy]

We always choose to do very specific things for the amount of time that we like. I have never found a package tour that suits me. We are also more interested in the quality of where we stay and what se do than getting a cheap price. BTD!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

https://scottscheapflights.com/ is good if you can be opportunistic and don't have a specific destination in mind. He basically checks the ITA data for airfares that are lower than usual for any route, and sends a list of them. Although ff you have a specific destination or destinations, they will probably come up at some point. Someone mentioned the paid subscription is worth it on another thread, although I am waiting until I retire and can travel more to get it.

 

[brett]

We have experienced some significant discounts by shopping internationally instead of dealing with NA TA's or NA websites.

Dealing direct for certain types of accommodation and paying cash has also yielded good discounts. Especially in Greece and Italy.

We have purchased cruises in Australia, Mexican AI's from a UK company, South African safaris direct from the operator vs from a local specialty TA.

We have saved a fair amount by purchasing air in country....in Argentina, Turkey, and Greece. Argentina fares were 30 percent less simply by calling their local call center in BA.

We started by looking at in country vendors and in country web sites vs NA websites. There can be differences.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Unfortunately, at our age we prefer convenience to cost. I say unfortunately as we used to be very concerned about paying over the cheapest we could get. Now we prefer convenience.

 

[brett]

We book 95 percent of our travel arrangements on the web.

About the only time we use a TA is to book a cruise. And even that is done almost entirely by email. The only variance is when we call her, or she calls us, to get our credit card number, etc.

So for us, booking an AI through a UK firm is no different than booking it on a NA website. Other than the currency conversion. Same with hotel stays, air, etc.

We never really know where the person at the other end of our email is actually located. Sometimes we ask and get a surprise.