Welcome to Your Travel Discount
Information Page. In this site, you will
find useful tips and
info on getting Hotel, Airline, and Car Rental deals for
your
trip.
Travelers can find many ways to
cut costs on hotel rooms, meals, rental cars, museum and attraction
admissions. It
pays to be persistent in order to find
deals.
Discount coupons can be found almost anywhere. Most
tourist agencies carry publications, brochures, books and fliers
with discount coupons. Highway welcome centers and even gas
stations will often have old looking newsprint booklets
offering
discounts. Also check the advertising circulars in Sunday
newspapers. Discounts may have restrictions and
conditions,
and may be unavailable at peak times, so read the fine print.
As
far as hotels are concerned, for all but the cheapest places, it is
usually advisable to make reservations. For the most
popular places and times, it’s not unusual for every room to be
booked months ahead. On the other hand, if it’s slow,
you
can sometimes get the best deals walking in off the street.
Online,
you can get hotel discount coupons through www.roomsaver.com.
In
addition, children’s prices are often discounted, and public museums
usually have free or discounted hours once a
week or
month.
Some good websites for discounts include www.priceline.com,
www.hotels.com, www.orbitz.com and www.hotwire.
com.
Car rental is a huge business
in the USA, and rates are very competitive. Most rental companies
require that you have a
major credit card, valid driver's license
and be at least 25 years old. Alamo, Thrifty, Enterprise and
Rent-a-Wreck may
rent to drivers between the ages of 21 and 24
for an additional charge.
Car rental prices vary widely from city
to city, company to company, car to car and day to day. To get the
best rates,
shop around. The more flexibility you have with
the days of your rental, the better your chances of landing a good
deal.
And before you travel, check with your travel agent or with
an online reservation network about fly-drive packages.
This may offer savings over paying for a plane ticket and car rental
separately. Here’s some things to keep in mind
when renting
a car. Renting on weekends and longer time rentals will usually get
you a discount. Unless you are driving
a very short
distance, unlimited mileage plans will work out cheaper in the long run
than rentals with limited mileage and
once you go over the
mileage limit, per mile fees will accrue real fast. Some rental
companies let you pay for your last
tank of gas up front; this is
almost never a good deal since it’s always easier to top off before
turning the car in, then to
make sure the tank is empty .
Tax on car rentals vary state by state, so make sure you ask the
total cost with tax. One
way rentals where you pick up the
car in one place and drop it off in another are usually more expensive and
they are
only offered by bigger companies; however, occasionally
one-way rentals may be cheaper. Be careful about adding extra
days or turning in a car early; extra days may be charged in a
premium rate, and an early return may jeopardize the low
weekly
or monthly deal you originally arranged.
Flying as the only practical
way to get around the USA if your time is limited. The domestic air
system is extensive,
with thousands of competing airlines,
hundreds of airports and thousands of scheduled flights every day.
Flying is
usually more expensive than traveling by bus,
train or car, but a special airfare deal can make the cost very
competitive.
The availability of discount deals depends on when
you’re traveling to, how far in advance you buy your ticket (at least
two weeks ahead advisable), the routes, and a few other factors. In
addition to shopping around online, contact a good
travel agent
for up to the minute deals for details on fares and discounts.
Some
good advice is to start shopping for a ticket early. Some of the cheapest
tickets, which are often found through
online travel agencies
must be booked months in advance. Sometime you will find that there are
price wars going on
where you will be able to get real cheap
airline tickets.
Discounted tickets are either official or
unofficial. Official tickets have a variety of names, such as apex,
excursion,
promotional, or advance purchase fares. Unofficial
tickets are tickets that the airlines release through selected travel
agencies (not through airline offices). The cheapest tickets
are often non refundable and charge a fee for flight changes.
Most insurance policies will cover this loss if you have to change of
flights for emergency reasons.
When shopping for your air ticket,
keep in mind your entire U.S. itinerary. Some deals for travel within the
USA can
only be purchased overseas in conjunction with an
international air ticket. These include various error taxes, greyhound
bus lines international to merit capacity, and some can track rail
passes. Also you can often get domestic flights within
the USA as
an inexpensive add-on to your international airfare..