Ah, the hype the advertising executives will come up with to get your attention. Gigantinormous. Gigantic and Enormous all rolled into one. Travelocity coined a new word just to get your attention. Aren’t they clever. They are having a Gigantinormous sale.

• You save $100 instantly off your reservations when you book one of their Flight+Hotel TotalTrip packages or one of their Last Minute Deals packages. The reservations must be for two people or more and there is a three night or longer stay required.
• The package must be booked by November 16, 2006 and travel must be done before January 7, 2007.
• To get the $100 discount, you need to enter the promotional code GIANTSALE when checking out.
• After you make your reservations for your initial travel, Travelocity will send you another promotional code good for $200 off your next qualifying Flight+Hotel TotalTrip package for two or more people with a minimum stay of five nights.
• To take advantage of the $200 off offer, you must book by March 31, 2007 and the trip must be taken by July 31, 2007.

So it’s time to do a little comparison shopping. How does their Gigantinormous sale hold up against their competitor’s prices? Since I’m wondering if this is a way to save on holiday travel, I’m going to find the price for a fictional family of four (2 adults plus 2 kids - ages 5 and to fly from Chicago to Philadelphia for Christmas.

Travelocity’s Deal

Plane Reservations - American Airlines leaving Chicago O’Hare at 10:55pm on December 23rd, direct flight to Philadelphia International; American Airlines leaving Philadelphia International at 11am on December 29th, direct flight to Chicago O’Hare

Hotel Reservations - Best Western in Center City - one room, two double beds

Travelocity’s bottom line after Gigantinormous discount $1568.01 for flight, hotel, taxes and fees.

Expedia’s Deal

Plane Reservations - American Airlines leaving Chicago O’Hare at 12:40pm on December 23rd, direct flight to Philadelphia International; American Airlines leaving Philadelphia International at 4:15pm on December 29th, direct flight to Chicago O’Hare.

Hotel Reservations - Expedia could not get me reservations at my hotel of choice Best Western in Center City - so I choose a comparable three star hotel in Center City - Club Quarters.

Expedia’s bottom line - $1,760.58 for flight, hotel, taxes and fees. Almost a full $200 more than Travelocity’s price.

Hotwire’s Deal

Plane Reservations - American Airlines leaving Chicago O’Hare at 2:15pm on December 23rd, direct flight to Philadelphia International; American Airlines leaving Philadelphia International at 8am on December 29th, direct flight to Chicago O’Hare.

Hotel Reservations - Hotwire could not get me reservations at my hotel of choice Best Western in Center City - so I choose a comparable three star hotel in Center City - Doubletree Inn

Hotwire’s bottom line - $1864.00 for flight, hotel, taxes and fees. Almost a full $200 more than Travelocity’s price. Almost a full $300 more than Travelocity’s price.

Priceline’s Deal

Priceline’s best price with undisclosed flight details (including a possible plane transfer) and a comparable three star hotel in Center City was $1,659 for flight, hotel, taxes and fees.

The winner - Travelocity by a Gigantinormous $200-$400 savings.

Now, the savings are just on the initial trip booked with Travelocity. If you add the additional $200 savings on a future trip booked with Travelocity the savings may be even greater. Of course, any wise traveler would comparison shop even with the $200 discount.

US Air’s Offer - Not Quite Gigantinormous, but a Savings Non-the-Less

US Airways is extending an invitation to its frequent flyers to escape from the chilly fall weather to the warmer climate of the Caribbean, Mexico or Central America. They have special fares to these destinations if you book now and travel before December 15th. There is a minimum three night stay associated with the offer.

In addition, you will receive a $25 gift card for each seat booked that can be used for a later flight with US Airways or one of its affiliates. The e-mail said that this offer is only good for members of their frequent flyer program.

So it seems as if this season’s deals are coming in the form of save a little now, save a little more later. The deals may be truly good for those who are planning to travel both sometime this fall and again later on in the year or early next year.

This article on discount travel packages has been brought to you by daily air travel.

Tags: air travel, Discount Travel, flight, hotel, reservations, travel, travelocityair travel, Discount Travel, flight, hotel, reservations, travel, travelocity

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For convenience and ease, the internet is hard to beat when looking for travel bargains. While it’s true that your local travel agent can do everything from help you decide where you want to go to how you want to get there, it does cost a few dollars for this convenience. Travel agents work on commission so the price you pay will generally include their commission for helping you. This is a small price to pay for the personal attention your agent can give you but for those that like to “do it yourself” or those willing to do a little work them selves, shopping online is hard to beat.

Just a few minutes online will reveal some fantastic savings on air fares, care rentals, hotel rooms, even complete packages and cruises. One of the other big benefits of shopping online is the convenience. While it may take more than ten minutes just to drive to your local travel agent, in ten minutes you could have made all of your travel arrangements online.

A great place to start your online travel search is with one or all of the larger travel websites. Travelocity is one of the giants, with Orbitz and Expedia right there in the mix as well. These sites specialize in rate comparisons. You can compare many airlines and hotels and car rental companies side by side in literally just a few minutes. And in those few minutes you could save a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

If you’re planning a trip to a specific region, you can also look for a travel website that caters exclusively to travelers looking for specific regional information. These niche travel sites tend to get into a little more detail about the area you may be planning to visit.

If there is one disadvantage to shopping online it would be that some of the deals you find will be limited offers. Always have your credit card ready so that you can take advantage of any super deals you may found. A bargain that is here today could very well be gone tomorrow. Whether you plan on taking a dream vacation or a business trip, the internet can be used as a huge advantage to savvy travelers that wish to save money.

Finding the time to uncover travel tips resources can be time consuming. Web publisher Holly Dodd enjoys doing the research and publishes results at http://www.blog.buckstopper.com and http://www.asiatraveldirect.info

Tags: air travel, cheap travel, Discount Travel, last minute travel, travel dealair travel, cheap travel, Discount Travel, last minute travel, travel deal

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There are several good and reliable travel sites on the Internet where you can find great travel deals and save big bucks on your next holidays.

However, getting the best deals is not always as easy as we think. Even though there are hundreds of travel sites out there, getting a bargain is not always simple.

Some of the well known sites, which I have personally used without any problem, are: Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Cheap tickets, Ebookers and Last minute.

Still, to find a good deal within these sites is not straightforward, a digging job has to be done to find the gold, despite the easy to use and wonderful sites these brands above and other companies have.

One of the activities that should not be missed is comparing your traveling schedule among the sites of your choice, because no one has the best prices, for all routes, always. Each one has its own specials and when someone has a bargain in certain route, usually the others have not the same special price.

To do this job, there are some websites which compare among these popular travel sites for the destination of your choice and after spotting the lowest fare, you can always go back to the lowest fare site to review the conditions and make the purchase, if you wish.

Major airline sites, often have special deals which are not published through travel sites, so taking a look to the airline sites, which travel to your selected destination, could give you surprisingly good fares for your flight.

Regardless the site or sites you choose to look for your travel information keep in mind the following tips when planning your next holiday.

Book as advanced as you can. Airlines fares increase as the time for departure approaches.

Try to arrive and depart in a mid-week day. Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

If you have flexible dates, chances to get a bargain will increase. Sometimes, a trade show or a special event will make the city of your destination very expensive for a given week, while a couple of days later or earlier, the prices could drop sharply.

For obvious reasons, avoid holidays. It is practically impossible to find a bargain during holidays, even more, airlines increase prices during holidays.

If you are traveling during Christmas, usually the Christmas day itself is cheaper than the days before. The same applies to Thanksgiving and other crowded holidays.

Try to use several websites to research your travel information, and then you will identify the most appropriate website for your needs.

When traveling to Europe from the US, try getting to a major city like London, and then use the local cheap fare airlines to travel around Europe.

When booking a hotel, use Expedia or Travelocity to see the pictures and location of the hotel, even if you book later in other site with better price.

Use as many sites as needed to book different parts of your holidays, if you get the best price in each one of them.

After you select a flight or hotel in any travel site, get into the airline and hotel sites directly and compare prices.

Verify that the site where you are purchasing has good reputation and uses SSL encryption when you pay online with a credit card.

After you receive the confirmation code from the travel site where you made the purchase, mail directly to the hotel and/or airline and confirm that they got your reservation exactly as the one you purchased.

Following these tips will give you the lowest fares available on the Internet and will avoid you unpleasant surprises when traveling.

Dr. Laurent Mikhail has extensive personal experience traveling around the world. To learn more, visit his site:
http://www.discount-travel-tickets.com

Tags: cheap airfare, cheap flights, cheap travel, discount airfare, Discount Travel, ex, travel, travel dealscheap airfare, cheap flights, cheap travel, discount airfare, Discount Travel, ex, travel, travel deals

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