So I'm trying to plan a vacation. But I'm on a shoestring budget.
I went to Priceline, Orbitz, and Travelocity and now my head is spinning.
I wanted to shy away from Liberty Travel (the local agent) but I may have to.

Anyone have any good advice as to getting the most bang for your travel buck?

Depends where and when you want to go PJ.

As for the extra fee that your agent will charge for booking, weigh it against the time it will take you to get someone from Travelocity on the phone should something happen with your flight, hotel or rental car booking. Travel is far from easy these days and between overbooked flights, security, misplaced luggage, lost hotel reservations and the rest of it...I've always opted for an agent for these reasons. However, I'd love to her from others that have had good online travel experiences.

Red said:

I have always used travelocity and the such with absolutly excellent success... but there is always the first time when things don't go right and that is where it would likely become an issue.

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

I suppose that my BIGGEST problem is that I'm not even sure WHERE I want to go!
On top of that - I can't decide whether to opt for a weekend getaway with the wife, or go for a full week with the kids.
AND it has to be cheap on top of everything.

Red said:

I almost always fly Northwest (I'm a Gold Elite member of their frequent flier program), and I book directly through their website, for two reasons. First, the fare is usually the same that I'd pay if I booked through Orbitz et al., minus the $5 service fee charged by the online travel agencies. Second, if I charge the ticket to my Northwest Airlines Visa card, I get double miles for that purchase. I've never had a problem with tickets booked through nwa.com.

For hotels, though, I will sometimes use a third-party online travel agency. For example, Expedia sometimes has special hotel rates that nobody else has. The catch is that you have to pay up front, and there are no refunds.

One tip about Expedia: if you book a hotel room through them, call the hotel a day or two in advance to confirm your reservation. Perhaps they've since improved their booking system, but at least in the past, Expedia would simply fax the reservation to the hotel, and in my experience, those faxes had a way of getting lost. Sometimes they'd just give me a room and tell me they'd straighten it out with Expedia later (e.g., Westin Atlanta Aiport). Other times, I'd have to wait in the lobby for an hour while the hotel resolved the problem (e.g., Hyatt Regency Chicago).

Also, Priceline is sometimes a good way to get a hotel room, depending upon your travel needs. For example, if you need to stay at a certain hotel (e.g., one that's closest to a conference you're attending), I don't recommend it, because you don't know what hotel you're getting until after your bid is accepted, and you can't later change it. OTOH, I've gotten some great deals through Priceline (e.g., $40 per night for an upscale hotel in Detroit) when I just needed to stay in a general area and could be flexible.

If you're going to use Priceline to make travel arrangements, I highly recommend reading the site Bidding for Travel first. There's a wealth of information there, including the "free re-bid" trick for hotels and reports from other folks about which bids were accepted and rejected.

Over the years I've gotten pretty good at making upscale travel plans on a modest budget, and I sometimes make travel arrangements for friends and family as a favor. Some people have suggested that I'd make a good travel agent, but I believe that the "traditional" travel agent is a dying breed. Sure, I'd charge a fee for my services (especially now that airlines no longer pay commissions to travel agents), but I believe that the money I could save clients would usually more than offset my service fee.

matt said:

WHORE!

matt said:

Thanks Matt. Good information.
As for hotel bookings, even agents these days can't seem to assure your room will be there upon arrival. I don't know how many times I have to go thru this - too many. And when I get to the bottom of the mess, I usually find it's the hotel's fault - and often either get reimbursed or a comp for any next visit. I think hotel's have really cut staff pay and it shows. The Hyatt anywhere is notorious for this. And I can't tell you how many times I've found an extra room night and differnt charges that don't even pertain to me - on my bill. Especially Vegas. One should always review the bill upon check-out. Many hotels in Vegas have auto mini-bars that charge you the minute you touch an item, even if you change your mind and put it back. Argh.

So purple....where do you live? Without asking too much, what's your budget? Perhaps I can make a suggestion.

Red said:

Or even worse....

Sometimes you can't take an item from the minibar without moving another item. And in that case, both items get immediately added to your bill. I ran into this problem at the Westin Indianapolis -- fortunately, they were happy to remove the improper charges at check-out when I explained that I couldn't take the orange juice without moving the Bud Light, etc.

In general I've have good luck with the Starwood family of hotels, which includes Westin, as well as Sheraton, W Hotels, and others. I've always gotten excellent, professional service from them.

I remember one stay at a Sheraton where my desk phone wasn't working. I didn't care -- the phone by the bed worked just fine, and I used my cell phone for most telephone calls anyway -- I just wanted to let them know about it so they didn't think that I'd broken the desk phone during my stay. Well, not only did they immediately send up someone to fix the phone, but they asked if 500 "Starpoints" (their version of frequent flyer miles) would be sufficient compensation for the "incovenience." 500 Starpoints because someone else broke a phone that I had no plans to use? Sure!

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably state that I own stock in Starwood Hotels, so I might be a bit biased when I sing their praises.)

Red said:

I'm in NY.
Was looking for a beachfront weekend getaway with the wife or a weeklong vacation with the kids.
However...since my initial post, I have spent considerable hours on Travelocity, Priceline, Hotwire, Orbitz, Yahoo Travel, Jet Blue and Expedia.
All of them are generally the same.
I am ashamed to post my "budget", as I was thinking in 1996 dollars (which was my last real vacation).

Right now I'm looking at a weekend in Puerto Rico for about $900 (air+hotel) - but we're still mulling it over. It may just end up in ANOTHER trip to Florida to visit (& stay with) the in-laws and take the kids to Disneyworld.

PurpleJedi said:

New York....ok Purple...how many kids are we talking...what ages?

Matt: Yeah, sure you had to move the Bud Light

Starwood has an excellent collection doesn't it? Shareholder huh. I love Four Seasons, Fairmonts (which were just bought out by an Arab). Have you seen the hotels (never been myself) in Dubai. And the city itself. MMMMmmmm. They call it the City of the Future. Their tourism departments are so much more advanced than anything in N/A. I requested a brochure and rec'd a 5lb box full - video, glossy magazines, shopping, dining brochures, baggage tags. Takes me 3 months to receive anything from New York, LA.
[Edited 2/10/06 22:37pm]

Red said:

Yup, they've got a good lineup. The W Seattle has been ranked among the world's 500 best hotels, even though it's only a four-star property. And later this month, I'll be staying at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, which supposedly is a very nice place.

Plus, any hotel that has a DJ spinning house music in the lobby at night, with the music piped into the elevators (i.e., the W Chicago City Center), gets major points in my book.

My only gripe about Starwood is that their credit card, which gives you Starpoints with every purchase (and you can generally convert Starpoints to airline miles on a 1:1 basis), is an American Express card, which most places won't take.



I invested in Starwood after they announced their plans for a new chain, aloft. It's inspired by their W chain, which is nice and has a unique ambience, but will never have too many locations because a four-star hotel isn't really viable outside of major cities/destinations. Basically, they're using W Hotels as the inspiration for a new chain of 2.5-star hotels that will compete with Courtyard et al. The plans are pretty ambitious... 500 locations by 2012. And I think they'll all be new construction... from what I've read about aloft, I don't think it'll be feasible to convert currently-existing hotels.

You know how most mid-level hotels have a bland feel to them? Not so with aloft... I think this new chain is going to make a big impact on the lodging industry.

yes, American Express spends more money trying to get peeps to subscribe to the card than they do attempting to make nice with retailers/suppliers. I must get a piece of mail from AMEX at lest once a week. I use Aerogold Visa that provides me points per dollar and as I use it for business expenses, the points rack up fast. Haven't paid cash for a flight in over 10 years. Recently they created a catalogue of merchandise that is not air releated that you can spend points on...but somehow I can't justify 450,000 points for a big screen TV and it seems the more points you have the fewer choices you get (which I wrote them about only last week). I'd rather save it and use towards future air. Sometimes, but only for Euro fares, I set up friends air travel and charge them half the cost of the tickets and pocket the $.

aloft sounds like a brilliant idea; we need more affordable lodging. I can't believe the cost of hotels these days. You can't find a decent hotel in NY or LA for less than $300+US/nt. Grant it the Cnd $ is much better today, but you convert that 300+ into Cnd on a bad day and who wants to pay $400-$500 a night. 2012 is a long way off - I'll be too old to use aloft them.

Hi PurpleJedi, Im a manager for a hotel bookings company (www.alpharooms.com). Let me know if you need any help booking a hotel.

JDINTERACTIVE said:

Hey thanks!
The wife & I are reconsidering our plans.

RED: ages 4, 6 & 8