Karen Patterson lives for dead week. The San Diego, CA, computer analyst waits until the holidays are over to find the best bargains. Her patience pays: The week immediately after New Year’s Day, also known as “dead week,” offers some of the most irresistible deals. Patterson snagged a $39 one-way fare on Southwest Airlines from San Diego to San Antonio, Texas during dead week. Room rates at the Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio are $99 a night, which is $60 less than they were for the last week in December.
From the yearly archives:
2001
No sooner had the first wheel of my plane touched down in Vienna than I reflexively reached for the cell phone. The tri-band GSM handset was set to work in Austria, so as the aircraft rolled to a stop, I confidently keyed in my voice-mail number. Nine hours without a phone can seem like an eternity. “I’m sorry, but your call cannot be completed,” a female voice said in German. “Please check with your service provider.”
Q: A site called Bestfares.com claims it offers a fare between Portland, OR, and Bogota for $100 less than the cheapest ticket I can find.
The normal fare on Continental Airlines is about $1,000. I usually ask my travel agent to go through a consolidator, and that lowers the price to about $800. But when rates [...]
Too often, travelers obsess over cutting costs on big-ticket items when they plan a trip, like finding a lower airfare or booking a cheaper hotel room. Too often, they skip the small moneysaving opportunities that, over a few days, can really add up. It’s true that you’re going to spend most of your money on airfare (about half), hotel (23 percent), meals (12 percent), and car rental (5 percent) – those figures courtesy of Runzheimer International.
Remember all those efforts to re-regulate the airline industry earlier this year – bills like the “Fair Treatment of Airline Passengers Act” and the “Aviation Consumer Right To Know Act” that would have compelled carriers to offer passengers the lowest airfare or inform them of air traffic delays?
Even though Marjory Hawkins travels with a Sony Vaio laptop computer, one of the lightest and most dependable PCs on the market today, she’d rather leave the hardware at home. “I am tired of hauling it around, especially now that you have to turn it on every time you go through the airport,” says the Orinda, CA, communications consultant. “It takes extra time to get through security – and if your battery is dead, you are in trouble when they ask you to turn it on.”
They come after dark, without warning. They offer incredible bargains. They scare me. Last night there was one from Expedia saying, “Dear Christopher, the holidays are coming…and no, it’s not too late to find great travel deals.” What kind of deals? How about round-trip flights starting at $92, or 15 percent off on all ATA flights, or (I’m not making this up) one last chance to “ski for free”?
Q: I have a big gripe. I bought a vacation to Las Vegas on uBid.com. The hotels offered through the bid were the Stardust, the Sahara, or the Desert Paradise Resort condominiums. I picked the Stardust.
Apparently, uBid.com uses two other companies to handle its bookings-Thrifty Travel and Minivacations. When I got more information through Minivacations, [...]
Price of High-Speed Access Could Come Down Soon So maybe you don’t see neon signs advertising “Free high-speed Internet!” on every other roadside motel yet. Or even in the newspaper ad for your favorite upscale hotel. Be patient; prices are heading south. How do I know? By watching my bandwidth bills, paying attention to the news – and reading between the lines.
Q: I am scheduled to take a trip to Egypt in January. How dangerous is travel abroad right now? I understand there is anti-American sentiment in that region of the world, but that does not concern me as much as actual danger of physical violence against Americans. Your insight into this would be welcome.
– Scott [...]
If you’ve been feeling a little down lately, don’t blame the economy or the coming winter. Blame the travel deals. It sounds almost absurd, and until a few months ago, it would have been unthinkable. But travelers who ordinarily wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of a great price on an airline ticket, cruise vacation, or rental car are now having second thoughts about the bargains.
“Americans are asking: ‘What is expected of us?’” President Bush says in a new TV ad sponsored by the Travel Industry Association of America. To which a chorus of hotel employees, airline crew members and cruise line staff answer: “We ask you to live your lives. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America’s great destinations.”
If you thought one-day airfare sales were reserved for airlines trying to unload unused seats during the soft demand of late summer or dead of winter, you’d better think again. One-day sales are becoming as common as blue light specials at Kmart, and almost every carrier is holding them because people stopped flying this fall. But is it worth dropping everything you’re doing to take advantage of a 24-hour sale? Are the prices so much better? How about the availability?
Will the cell phone of the future be free? Don’t laugh. A recent study by Forrester Research on European cell phone use concluded that wireless companies on the continent were squeezed by competitive pressures and bled dry by the cost of third-generation (3G) licenses. Their only hope of generating much-needed extra income now is from mobile gaming.
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10 travel stories we missed
December 28, 2001
Terrorist attacks, attempted bombings and a travel industry in freefall have headlined one of the most unforgettable years in memory. But some transportation-related stories slipped between the metaphorical cracks.
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