{"id":4763,"date":"2011-01-07T17:16:34","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T16:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tokao.com\/?p=4763"},"modified":"2011-01-07T17:16:34","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T16:16:34","slug":"but-that-doesnt-mean-a-year-in-front-of-your-television-there-are-still-plenty-of-ways-to-cut-costs-here-are-11-strategies-and-some-useful-web-sites-to-help-you-save-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/07\/but-that-doesnt-mean-a-year-in-front-of-your-television-there-are-still-plenty-of-ways-to-cut-costs-here-are-11-strategies-and-some-useful-web-sites-to-help-you-save-on\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Tricks to Cutting Travel Costs in 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

BARGAIN hunters will need to be craftier when booking a trip if they want to get the best prices this year. It\u2019s no secret that airfares are up and added fees for everything from checked bags to exit-row seats are pushing the cost of flying higher. On top of that, hotel bargains are expected to be harder to come by as\u00a0business travelers<\/a> begin to return, diminishing the need for hotels to discount rooms in major cities.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean a year in front of your television. There are still plenty of ways to cut costs. Here are 11 strategies \u2014 and some useful Web sites \u2014 to help you save on travel this year.<\/p>\n

1. SHOP \u201cPRIVATE SALES\u201d<\/strong> A growing number of Web sites, including\u00a0SniqueAway.com<\/a>,\u00a0TabletHotels.com<\/a>and\u00a0Jetsetter.com<\/a> have flash sales of 20 to 60 percent off hotel packages to travelers on an invitation-only basis. Jetsetter, for example, recently offered a Friday night in January at the Angler\u2019s, a boutique hotel in\u00a0Miami<\/a>, for $255 a night, down from the $359 offered at the hotel\u2019s site. Another site,\u00a0TripAlertz.com<\/a>, works like Groupon for travel, meaning that the more people who book a deal, the lower the rate. For example, a four-night, all-inclusive stay at the Hilton Papagayo\u00a0Costa Rica<\/a> Resort & Spa was initially offered to members for $1,496, or 15 percent off, last month. After 55 bookings, the price dropped to $1,220. At TripAlertz and\u00a0LivingSocial.com<\/a>, which offers last-minute getaways, all you have to do is create an account to access the deals. A Google search for \u201cSnique Away invite\u201d turned up a registration form for SniqueAway.com that got me in.<\/p>\n

2. BUY ON TUESDAY<\/strong> Most airlines begin sales on Monday evenings, and by the following day other airlines have usually matched the lowered fares on the same routes, said Anne McDermott, editor at\u00a0Farecompare.com<\/a>, which tracks price trends. Last month, for example, Virgin America had a sale on Dec. 13, with one-way fares as low as $79 on some routes, according to Farecompare. The next day, there were sales from AirTran, Southwest and American, with one-way fares from $59. Because sales are hard to predict, travelers looking for the best deal should start their searches three to four months in advance, when airlines begin to look closely at which routes may need a sale to fill seats.<\/p>\n

3. SEARCH FOR COUPON CODES<\/strong> Practically every travel site includes a box at checkout for a promotional discount code. Sites like\u00a0PromotionalCodes.com<\/a> orCouponWinner.com<\/a> organize such codes into categories so that you can search specifically for airline, car rental or hotel deals. A recent search turned up codes for deals like $94 flights between New York and\u00a0New Orleans<\/a>, 15 percent discounts on Avis weekly car rentals and $75 off of three-night Westin Hotels packages.<\/p>\n

4. ASK FOR A REFUND<\/strong> Many airlines will refund the difference in price if the fare drops after you purchase a ticket (minus a change fee).\u00a0Yapta.com<\/a> helps get you that refund by tracking the price of your ticket and sending you an e-mail or Tweet when the price drops so that you can call the airline to claim the credit. A new site,\u00a0Autoslash.com<\/a>, offers a similar service for car rentals.<\/p>\n

5. AVOID ROAMING CHARGES<\/strong> Skype<\/a> and Truphone offer free apps for making cheap international calls using Wi-Fi, with rates that start at pennies per minute. You can pay as you go or sign up for monthly plans to make unlimited calls in certain countries for a flat fee: $13.99 a month for Skype calls to land lines and mobile phones in more than 40 countries, or $12.95 a month for Tru calls in 38 countries with TruUnlimited. Another option: the Vonage Mobile app for\u00a0Facebook<\/a> allows travelers to make free international calls over Wi-Fi to Facebook friends who also download the app.<\/p>\n

6. CHANGE YOUR CREDIT CARD<\/strong> Most American banks charge currency conversion fees, typically up to 3 percent when you use your credit or debit card outside the\u00a0United States<\/a>. But there are some exceptions. Capital One does not charge foreign transaction fees, and Chase recently began waiving the fees on its British Airways Visa Signature Card, its Hyatt Card and the Priority Club Select Visa.<\/p>\n

7. SAVE ON PARKING YOUR CAR<\/strong> Bestparking.com<\/a> steers drivers toward the cheapest parking at off-airport lots near 79 North American airports. Rates are updated frequently, and sold-out lots are highlighted. A recent search for parking near\u00a0Newark Liberty International Airport<\/a> offered a snapshot of rates and locations on a map. The Renaissance Hotel lot was among the cheapest at $12 for 24 hours. There is also a free app for\u00a0iPhone<\/a>, Android or BlackBerry users.<\/p>\n

8. WAIT A WEEK<\/strong> Avoid the crowds and save by traveling the week after a major holiday. A five-night\u00a0ski<\/a> vacation in Breckenridge, Colo., during the last week of December was priced at $1,988 a person, including airfare from\u00a0Chicago<\/a>, at\u00a0Orbitz.com<\/a>. For the following week, the same trip was listed at $1,037 a person. Similarly, a vacation including airfare from New York and five nights at the\u00a0Walt Disney World Dolphin<\/a> Resort dropped from $821 to $580.<\/p>\n

9. NEGOTIATE <\/strong>Though many hotels say that they offer their best rates online, it pays to ask the front desk for a lower rate. My colleague Seth Kugel regularly uses this tactic, as he pointed out in\u00a0a column<\/a> last summer: \u201cI arrive with a solid reservation but then check out five or six other hotels and go back and forth between them in an attempt to set off a price war.\u201d The strategy saved him $20 a night in Le\u00f3n,\u00a0Nicaragua<\/a>. I have had\u00a0similar success<\/a>over the phone with reservation agents at New York hotels like the Ritz-Carlton New York and\u00a060 Thompson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

10. TRAVEL LIKE A STUDENT<\/strong> Student travel agencies like STA Travel, StudentCity and StudentUniverse have begun to extend their low prices to nonstudents and older travelers. While some of the deepest discounts are offered only to travelers enrolled in an academic program, recent college graduates can often save 10 to 25 percent with \u201cyouth fares.\u201d For example, a recent search for flights in March on\u00a0STATravel.com<\/a>, which limits certain deals to nonstudents under the age of 26, turned up seats for $926 round trip on V Australia Airlines. The best rates for the same dates on\u00a0Kayak.com<\/a> were $1,187. Though it is not common for older travelers to use student travel agencies, it is possible to do so. There were no age restrictions for a discounted four-day Inca Trail trek with STA Travel for $674 a person, down from $899.<\/p>\n

11. DON\u2019T PAY TO CHECK A BAG<\/strong> Checking bags can quickly add up, with airlines charging between $15 and $35 a bag. Delta\u2019s SkyMiles-branded American Express card allows you and up to eight others on the same reservation to each check a bag at no cost. And American Express introduced a travel-rewards card \u2014 the Blue Sky Preferred Credit Card \u2014 that offers travelers an annual $100 allowance to cover checked baggage, in-flight meals, entertainment or Wi-Fi purchases, and other fees, on any airline.<\/p>\n

(by MICHELLE HIGGINS<\/a> from NYTimes<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BARGAIN hunters will need to be craftier when booking a trip if they want to get the best prices this year. It\u2019s no secret that airfares are up and added fees for everything from checked bags to exit-row seats are pushing the cost of flying higher. On top of that, hotel bargains are expected to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[8,32],"class_list":["post-4763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","category-technology","tag-tips","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tokao.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}