Use the Internet wisely, scour for travel bargains (Online Bookings - Comments & Tips)

Member Name: elvis42

Product:	Online Bookings - Comments & Tips
Date:	22/02/01 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Finding the best bargain

Disadvantages: a little time-consuming

Ok, so this is what I do - no state secret, but the more diligent you are the better deals you can get.

First of all decide where you want to go, or if you just want to go anywhere. Then have a rough idea of dates (all pretty easy up till now).

Learn which airlines offer flights to your destination or nearby and bookmark all of their sites, as well as the travel aggregators, such as Expedia, Travelocity and eBookers. Use http://www.cheapflights.com/ for reference and for booking. It's a great little site.

When selecting cheap airlines, don't forget to look at the continental ones, such as Alitalia, Air Europa, Sabena as they often have Web bargains in the same way as our airlines do and are perfectly willing to sell to UK travellers.

Look at the front pages of Expedia, Travelocity and eBookers - extra special deals are often advertised as buttons (for example, the recent British Airways sale was featured on at least one of these sites).

Check Go, Ryanair, Easyjet, Buzz, British Midland and KLM UK as often as you can and note when their current offers end, so you can be in first when the next set of offers are launched (I have done this very successfully on Ryanair who tend to only run offers for a few days, then start with different offers). If you're the type who enjoys it, also sign up to their newsletters to get the inside scoop - and check their news sites, they are really bitchy and full of in-fighting, which can be entertaining as well as offering you the chance to have a great holiday.

I check as many hotel sites as I can so I get a good idea of prices, each of the travel sites has partnered with hotel search engines, so you get a lot to choose from, and sometimes you can hit on a real bargain. Also, check http://www.iyhf.org for worldwide hostels.

If you want package holidays, look for the sites that offer good deals on them (like thomascook.com and bargainholidays.com and keep plu
gging away till you get the one you want).

The whole advantage of using the Internet is the information you're suddenly afforded, so try to spare the time to really make use of it. For example, when booking with Ryanair, try and find out how much transport to Stansted and at the other end will add to the flight price. Look for deals the airlines have with the bus/train companies. Go has one with Airbus and Easyjet with Thameslink - which can give you even greater bargains.

And, as a very basic rule, don't forget to check information about your destination online - lonely planet has some great information online, so does roughguides.com - print out maps and basic information. See if you can find people on ICQ or IM that come from the country you're travelling to who can give you insider tips on the best things to do.

I could probably go on forever about this, as it's a subject I'm very passionate about. Use the resources available to you and you'll always find a bargain somewhere.

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