Travel Deal of the Day (December 31, 2008)

Two end of the year travel notes:

(1) With the end of the year approaching, you should note that certain frequent flyer programs (e.g. Mileage Plus) are changing required redemption amounts in 2009. If you have enough miles to redeem an award, you should consider redeeming miles today rather than waiting until 2009 as you may be required to use more miles if you wait.

(2) The end of the year is a good time to check frequent flyer/frequent stay account balances. If you have not used certain frequent flyer/frequent stay accounts recently, you should check the rules of those programs to see if miles expire without activity. If you must have periodic activity to retain your miles/points, you may want to find the least expensive way to accrue miles/points. In some programs, something as simple as buying a single song on Apple Itunes for $1 can save all of your miles.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 28, 2008)

Loews Hotels has a third or fourth night free deal for stays booked by tonight (December 28, 2008).

The Deal:
Book a room at a handful of Loews Hotels by tonight (December 28, 2008) for stays until April 12, 2009 and receive a third or fourth night free (deal varies based on the hotel).

How:
Go to the Loews Free Night Deal to see a list of participating hotel, full rules/restrictions and to book a room.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 24, 2008)

If you are thinking about spending the holidays at a hotel near relatives, I would highly suggest shopping around for room rates and even negotiating with a few hotel reservation managers for your business - you might be able to find incredibly cheat hotel/motel rates during these uncertain economic times.

The Deal:
Be sure to shop around for hotel/motel rates when visiting relatives for the holidays. Many budget and mid-level hotel/motel chains are hurting right now - far fewer people are traveling, and the hotel occup. rates are down. Search rates using a variety of websites and call the hotel directly to try to negotiate room rates. You may find that a reservations manager or a front desk manager will lower rates tremendously if you tell them you are on a travel budget this year.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 22, 2008)

Another amazing Las Vegas deal – this time at the five-star Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.

The Deal:
People posting on Better Bidding are noting that they are winning the five-star Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas for as low as $72/night. As has been reported previously, Las Vegas is hurting tremendously – this demonstrates that high end resorts such as the Wynn are providing excellent deals in this economy to attract visitors.

How:
So far, I have only seen the Wynn appear via Hotwire (it has not yet been reported at this price-level on Priceline, though that can change at any time). See Better Bidding to find out more information about bidding for the Wynn via Hotwire.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 19, 2008)

This is a deal that has been mentioned previously, but is even more applicable during the current period of declining travel demand. If you are traveling to a hotel/resort to celebrate a special occasion, I would strongly suggest you mention the occasion to the hotel or resort. Many hotels/resorts will offer you amenities for your special occasion - examples may include a room upgrade, a corner room, a bottle of champagne or a special package deal. Given the current recession, hotels and resorts are likely to have more ability to accommodate such special requests as hotel occupancy rates are down.

How:
If you are celebrating a special occasion, send an email or fax a day or two in advance of your visit to the front desk manager. Many front desk managers will ensure that you are assigned the best possible room and may accommodate other requests or provide additional amenities. If your request is accommodated, be sure to thank the person that went out of his/her way to accommodate your request.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 17, 2008)

National Car Rental is offering a free day on a weekend rental of at least three days.

The Deal:
Get a third day free on weekend rentals of Compact through Full Size cars from National through the end of March 2009.

How:
Go to the Weekend Free Day Promotion.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 15, 2008)

There are some incredible Hawaii deals over the next few weeks via Priceline. The deals last into what is usually a very expensive time period.

The Deal:
For the first time in a long time, you can stay at 4 and 4 1/2 star Hawaiian resorts for under $200/night during the week between Christmas and New Years Eve by using bidding websites such as Hotwire and Priceline. One example is this post (on BetterBidding.com) showing a successful Priceline bid over New Year's Eve at the Wailea Marriott for $170/night. These deals will likely last until well into 2009, so if you are planning a Hawaiian vacation, you should consider bidding on Priceline/Hotwire to save a lot of money on your trip.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 9, 2008)

In these days of harder economic times, if you decide to go away on a vacation, you likely are more focused on making your money go farther. One way to do so is to stay at a less expensive hotel on the first and/or last night of your hotel stay.

The Deal:
If you are going on a vacation to a nice resort, you are paying for the various amenities of that resort – pools, skiing access, exercise facilities, spa, sauna/steam room and/or other facilities. To lower the overall cost of your trip, consider staying at a lower priced (basic) hotel on the first and/or last night of your stay especially if you are flying into your destination late and/or are leaving from your destination early. If you fly to your destination late and stay near the airport at a inexpensive three or four star hotel (using Priceline), you may save $100/$200/$300. You can get up early the next morning and use all of the facilities of your primary resort (even if you cannot check-in early, usually you can use all hotel facilities before check-in on the day of check-in). If you are flying out of your destination very early, you can check-out of your resort on the day before your flight but stay at the resort all day long (most hotels will let you use all hotel facilities on the date of check-out even after you checked-out of the room). Then, you can stay by the airport at an inexpensive (Priceline) airport hotel for your early flight the next day. This suggestion may not work for everyone – but if you are trying to make your vacation budget go further, this may work for you.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 3, 2008)

Las Vegas is really hurting right now. If you are interested in staying at a five-star Las Vegas hotel, the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is running two specials, with rates as low as $113/night.

The Deal:
The Bellagio is running two specials for December 2008 and January 2009 travel with very reasonable rates.

(1) Bellagio is offering a third-night free special of $169/night for two nights (third night free). The average nightly rate based on a three-night stay using this special is $113/night.

(2) If you are looking to stay for anything other than 3 (or some multiple of 3) nights, Bellagio is offering a rate of $129/night.

These are very good rates for the Bellagio. Though the third-night free promotion has been running for at least a few weeks, I have not seen a $129/night standard rate at the Bellagio during the last few years.

Rates are valid for weeknight stays on various dates throughout December 2008 and January 2009.

How:
Go to the Third Night Free or the $129/Night Special.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 1, 2008)

Airfares to Hawaii have dropped dramatically over the last few weeks – if you are searching for a vacation destination, you may want to look now at airfares to Hawaii as airfares are quite reasonable for travel over the next few months.

The Deal:
Airfares to Hawaii have dropped dramatically over the last few weeks, especially from cities such as Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Fares around $100/way are routine from West Coast cities such as Los Angeles to Honolulu (if you have flexible travel dates). Fares from other Continental US cities to Hawaii have also dropped recently (for the most part), and airlines have dropped fuel surcharges for most routes to Hawaii. Airfares from the East Coast to Hawaii vary based on the departure city, but airlines are routinely offering sale fares of less than $200/way from Washington to Honolulu. Fares from the Midwest to Hawaii have also dropped recently (Cleveland to Hawaii, for instance, is around $200/way).

How:
Use an aggregator website such as Kayak to search for airfares. Be sure to search all possible departing and arriving airports and to search fares on a variety of dates to find the best deal.