Fuel prices are on the rise again, but that doesn’t seem to be keeping us off the road. Travelers like Howard Paulman say it’s going to take a lot more than higher gas bills to force him back on a plane.
The Travel Tightwad
Charles Hathorn wanted to cash in his hotel loyalty points for six nights at the Hilton Prague, but his HHonors account came up a few points short. No problem, said a Hilton sales agent. Why not transfer some of your United Airlines miles? The extra 10,000 points gave the Maine, NY, organization consultant six free nights at any Hilton property, including the one he wanted in the Czech Republic. Ordinarily, the hotel bill would have come to about $1,200, so redeeming his points and miles was a smart move. “I was pleased to get a great deal,” says Hathorn.
Marc-Albert Michaud needed to fly to Los Angeles for a spring weekend, but sky-high airfares threatened to ground him. “I couldn’t find anything for less than $500,” he says. So at the last minute, he parted with 25,000 frequent flier miles and landed a seat on a United Airlines flight. “The tickets were selling for $2000 at that point,” he says. “It was worth it.”
Don’t get blown away by high prices when you visit the Windy City. The Internet is a second-to-none resource for discounts in Chicago, and in my final column in our series on how to save money when you travel to a big city, I’ll show you where to click. First, a reality check. Even though they call Chicago the Second City, it isn’t necessarily the second-most expensive city. In fact, according to a study by William M. Mercer Cos., it’s the 36th-most expensive city in the world, just behind San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York in North America. So don’t plan a trip here with the expectation that the bargains are difficult to come by. They aren’t.
It’s OK to leave your heart in San Francisco, but not your wallet. In our continuing series on how to save money when you’re on the road, we turn our sites (and sights) out West to one of the most popular places in the United States. And, as always, cutting costs in the City by the Bay is a matter of knowing the right URL. Here are a few of my favorites.
New York is the most expensive city in the Americas, according to the latest Economist Intelligence Unit report on the world’s priciest places. But that doesn’t mean you have to get fleeced when you visit the Big Apple. Just log on to the Internet and you’ll find plenty of ways to pare the price of your visit, whether you’re looking for an inexpensive restaurant or trying to discover good deals on entertainment. In the Travel Tightwad’s continuing series on how to save money when you travel to the most popular destinations in the U. S., we set our sights on Gotham this week:
I have a confession to make. This is going to sound a little strange, but when I lived in Southern California, I used to make the 4 ½-hour drive to Las Vegas for what most people would consider a very strange reason: breakfast. Breakfast in Las Vegas is incredibly cheap. You can order a large plate of eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, and toast with coffee for $1.99 or less. Better yet, go to one of the big hotels and stand in line for one of the buffet breakfasts. The food is inexpensive and plentiful.
Skip the highway rest stops with those garish “Cheap Theme Park Tickets” signs. Ignore the newspaper ads that offer two-for-one discounts to Orlando attractions. Tell your travel agent “thanks, but no thanks,” when he or she offers you a deal on Disney tickets. Click online instead. Some of the best discounts to the Magic City are available on the Web.
Even though she dialed mostly toll-free numbers from her hotel room, Kepi Peterson thought her phone bill would be outrageously high. After all, the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas, warned that a $3 connection fee applied to “800″ numbers, too. So you can imagine the Mesa, AZ, homemaker’s surprise when the charges mysteriously disappeared from her account at checkout time.
Tab Stone isn’t fooled by a low airfare. The Los Angeles pediatrician knows that a cheap ticket may come with an inconvenient schedule, so he often opts for a pricier, but more direct, itinerary. That’s particularly true for long-haul flights. Stone, an avid Scuba diver, sometimes treks thousands of miles to find the best diving spots. “When you’re flying to Micronesia, you want to be on a wide-body jet, not on an island-hopper that stops in Honolulu or Guam,” he advises.
A few years ago I adopted a baby African Grey parrot I named Scarlett for her brilliant red tailfeathers and feisty disposition. But I didn’t know that my baby girl was terminally ill when I bought her, and within three days of taking her home, she died of pneumonia. A necropsy determined that Scarlett’s condition was pre-existing, but the pet store refused to offer a refund or replacement. Fortunately, I had paid for the bird with a credit card, and even though my bank had a policy against disputing cases involving live animals, it decided to help when I told it what had happened. Within a few weeks I got my money back.
On a recent visit to Palm Beach, Fla., I had a rare opportunity to dine at L’Escalier, a five-diamond French restaurant at The Breakers. Its menu featured exotic dishes like duck confit in feuille de brique and deux souffles, the wine list was heavier than an encyclopedia, and the service impeccable. If I could eat this way every time I traveled, I’d never stay home. Then again, if I ate like this every time I traveled, I’d also declare personal bankruptcy in no time. And if you’re reading this column, chances are you would too. So how do you lower your meal expenses when you’re on the road without going on a hungerstrike?
Want to save serious money on your next trip? You can spend hours shopping for the lowest fare, find a coupon for your rental car and book an inexpensive room in a bargain hotel. Or you can look to your employer, special-interest club or favorite travel Web site for the secret code. The code – usually an alphanumeric sequence that’s keyed into a computer reservations system when you book a trip – often unlocks a door to the travel industry’s deepest discounts. Knowing it can also entitle you to a bigger rental car or a more spacious hotel suite. In a cooling economy in which travelers are trying to freeze costs, these codes are becoming a hot commodity.
Kathleen Kowalczuk thought she’d found a bargain Caribbean cruise to help her escape Alaska’s arctic winter. But the real deal, it turns out, was the hotel she booked in Fort Lauderdale, FL. “It was a huge surprise,” says the Anchorage, Alaska, real estate broker. She knew the daily rate at the Gold Coast Beach Hotel was $59, which is a steal even during the off-season. She didn’t know that it meant she’d stay in the equivalent of a suite that came with an attractive water view.
Does your hotel charge by the hour? I didn’t have the nerve to ask the clerk when I checked into an Ontario, CA, airport inn at 2 a.m. recently. I should have. Fractional pricing, or charging a guest for only part of the day, isn’t limited to the no-tell motels of the world. Legitimate properties can, at their discretion, lower your room prices based on the time of occupancy, saving you up to half off the daily room rate.
The cost of a rental car usually represents less than a quarter of your overall trip expense, which may be why few ever talk about how to save money when you book a car. And when they do, it’s a footnote to a story or a TV broadcast. A mention about using coupons, here, a tip about bargaining your way into an upgrade, there.
It’s only a few minutes into the 10-hour flight from Vienna to Washington and already I’m thinking, “Please just send me to the cargo hold.” At least the freight doesn’t have to put up with a middle seat, with surly flight attendants, with screaming infants (one on each side), or a headset and video screen that are short-circuiting. At least the payload on Air Murphy has 10 hours of peace and quiet, and probably more legroom than my bulkhead seat offers. My nightmare flight from hell isn’t so much the exception as it is the rule these days, particularly in the U.S. and Canada. It’s gotten so bad that people refuse to travel.
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.
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.
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”?
