Travel
Vacation Budgeting
If you have frequent flier miles, figure out whether it is worth it to cash them
in for a ticket. A frequent flier mile said to be worth about 1-2 cents, so do the
math. Most programs
require you use 25,000 miles for a basic restricted ticket.
That means if you can purchase a fare for less than $250 -- $500, you may be better
off buying a ticket and saving the miles for a more expensive route. However, restrictions
and fewer seats for reward miles are making it more and more difficult to use your
miles on some airlines, so in some cases it’s better just to cash them in when you can.
Travelzoo.com can be useful for compare fares using several of the major booking
engines, like Travelocity.com, Expedia.com and Hotwire.com. Other websites, called
“aggregators” feature discounted fares and may not charge a booking fee.
Visit http://airtravel.about.com
for a current list of aggregators.
Keep in mind that some airlines, like Southwest, only
allow you to search fares
and book tickets directly on their websites. One way to find cheaper airlines is
to go to the website of the airport you plan to depart from and look at their list
of airlines to see if there are other discount airlines that may offer a better
deal.
Try an off-the-beaten path airport if your schedule is flexible. For example, Midwest
travelers may find it cheaper to fly into Chicago’s Midway airport than O’Hare,
or may even want to look at flying into Milwaukee or South Bend. For a list of alternate
airports by city, go to BestFares.com and type “alternate airports” into the search
field.
Consolidators can save you money on flexible travel. These companies offer very
cheap seats, generally to Hawaii and international destinations, although they offer
some domestic options as well. They sell last-minute seats that would have otherwise
gone unsold. You must be flexible with your dates and times, but if you are, there
are real bargains to be had. Airtech.com and Air-hitch.com are a couple of consolidators
worth checking
out.
