Travel Deals

[isingbaritone]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 7:58am

I am planning a Memorial Day Weekend Trip to NYC.... Does anyone have suggestions on where to find great deals on airfare and hotels?

Thank you!

[Stage Door Sally]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 8:27am

Memorial Day weekend is expensive.

That said, make your life easy by plugging your travel dates into kayak.com, it does a search of the Internet and gives you the cheapest published rates.

Also check out travelzoo.com for special deals.

My favorite discount sites are hotwire.com and priceline.com. Both deal with "opaque" properties, that is they do not reveal the hotel until you purchase it. However, there is help in deciphering these offerings on the board betterbidding.com. A great resource.

After you get what you think are the lowest hotel rates you can call the hotel and ask if they will match the price, if it makes you more comfortable to book directly with the hotel.

You can use the same resources above for airfare rates. Also check out flyertalk.com.

[pacificnorthwest]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 12:34pm

I definitely recommend Priceline for hotels. But there's a strategy to it. I can explain further if you'd like, and in addition to the betterbidding website, check out the NYC page for biddingfortravel.com

The quick lesson is this: Start with four stars and four stars only, and you will then be able to move down to 3.5 and 3, and lower if you'd like. Do not fear the message that is likely to come up telling you haven't bid enough and it's unlikely to be accepted. In fact, you might want to worry if you don't see that message: You might be bidding more than you need to.

As for neighborhoods, if you're going to be seeing shows, start in Times Square, then add "Midtown West" if your bid isn't accepted.

For airfares, I always go a site such as Travelocity and check for the best fares, then book direct with the airline. Usually you get the same rate on both sites.