www.kristraveler.com » Search Engines / Booking Sites

airfarewatchdog – Get answers to all your airline related questions!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:57:59 +0000

I found out about airfarewatchdog a couple of years ago when I was searching for airfare deals, and since then I became a huge fan of these guys. Their search engine is not really that different from many others I typically use, though their fare alerts typically show unadvertised deals, based on the departure airport(s) and destination you choose in your profile.

Nonetheless, the big value-add of airfarewatchdog is in the Q&A section. There you’ll find all the answers that you once had and and didn’t know who to ask. By subscribing to their newsletter you can get those Q&As directly in your inbox and if have stepped on a plane recently, you will find at least one of their tips quite useful.

For you to have an idea, these are some topics I’ve learned from them:
- How Bereavement fees work in airlines
- Best time of the year to book your next vacation
- Information on Baggage Fees
- What to do when the airlines lose your luggage
- Compensation when they sell out or cancel your flight
- and many many more….

Check out their website and let me know what you think or how it was useful for you!

airfarewatchdog – Get answers to all your airline related questions! is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

This post was submitted by Kris.

Booking an Award Trip? Here are some tools!

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:14:16 +0000

I had mentioned about Expert Flyer here on kristraveler.com before. Here’s another article from the WSJ that gives more details of how it works and also mentions another tool – MileageManager.

——————–

Have Miles but Can’t Get a Seat? How to Snare One

JANUARY 14, 2010 By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Even though recession-weary consumers may want to cash in frequent-flier miles to get free trips and upgrades more than ever these days, it’s gotten harder to snare those awards.

Continental Airlines, the only U.S. airline to report award redemptions monthly, says awards and upgrades claimed in its frequent-flier program were down 20% in the first 10 months of 2009 compared to the same months of 2008.

And this year may be even tougher. Since airlines aggressively reduced capacity through the economic downturn, they’ve filled flights fuller with paying customers and appear to have reduced availability of award seats and upgrades. As the economy picks up, passenger demand for seats will get tighter.

“Awards and upgrades will be harder to find, unless you are constantly looking,” said Chris Lopinto, president of ExpertFlyer.com, a service used by road warriors that focuses on airline inventory and seat availability.

Landing the free seat you want using frequent-flier miles has long been one of the biggest frustrations for travelers. The prizes offered by airlines are enticing, but the seats never seem to be available on the flights and routes you want. Some people try to call airlines at midnight 11 months before the date they plan to travel—typically when booking opens for a flight—to be first in line for frequent-flier award seats. Some know to check repeatedly because airlines change inventory daily. And many give up the search, letting miles accumulate and cursing airlines for selling false hope.

New Tools

Still, there are several new tools available to help you find that elusive award. Some airlines have made it easier to find award seats—when they are available—and several Web sites have tools to help you search. ExpertFlyer and another site called MileageManager.com have award alerts that send you an email when a frequent-flier seat or upgrade opens up on a flight you want.

Airlines often hold back frequent-flier award seats or upgrades on popular flights, hoping that bookings by fare-paying passengers will be strong. But if seats don’t sell as briskly as predicted, awards can be made available for booking in reservation systems at anytime.

ExpertFlyer’s award alert feature works on 22 airlines worldwide, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, a unit of Hawaiian Holdings Inc., in the U.S., plus Air Canada, Air China, Air France, which is a unit of the Air France KLM Group, Qantas Airways and others. ExpertFlyer says that more than 50% of customers who look for an award actually find one that works for them.

Using the alert system, it takes about 25 days on average for travelers to find the award they want, says Mr. Lopinto. His customers typically look for seats about 10 weeks in advance, and the most-searched-for award is a business-class upgrade. “More and more business travelers book into economy and then try to use their own miles to upgrade into business,” he said.

MileageManager’s AwardPlanner function lets you put in up to five different itineraries and when availability is found, AwardPlanner alerts you by email so you can book it. The award alert service works with 10 different airlines: American, British Airways, Continental, Delta, Deutsche Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

MileageManager requires you to register your frequent flier accounts with the service, turning over your airline account number and password, before its AwardPlanner function can be used. Both MileageManager and ExpertFlyer offer free trial periods, but after that MileageManager is $14.95 per year and ExpertFlyer costs $9.99 a month.

Checking Alliances

On the airline side, road warriors suggest checking alliance Web sites—StarAlliance.com, oneWorld.com and SkyTeam.com—that show flights on partner airlines that may not be displayed on your own airline’s booking site. Those partner airlines may have award seats available, but you’ll need to call to find out. LOT Polish, for example, might offer something that doesn’t automatically show up on UAL Corp.’s United Airlines’ Web site, but you can often use your United miles to book it if you know what to ask for.

Sharon Adcock, a publicist for the entertainment industry and elite-level member of United’s program, says she usually has success using StarAlliance.com to get free tickets or upgrades even when United’s Web site says nothing is available.

“They tell me they don’t have anything and then I say, What about this one? What about that one? I manage to get award tickets the way I want,” she said.

Charles Witt, a facilities planner who travels the world, has the same kind of success using alliance Web sites.

“If you lead the airline, it can work out. That’s part of the game, too. You know the answer before you ask the question,” he said.

More Options

Airlines have long told customers that flexibility is the key to booking awards—a willingness to travel on different days or even to different cities increases your chances of finding an award. But now airlines are also becoming more flexible and giving customers more options to redeem their miles. That’s because it is actually in the airlines interest to encourage fliers to use miles.

A change in accounting rules has made it more expensive for airlines to carry unredeemed miles on their balance sheets. And miles have become a huge cash generator for airlines, primarily by selling them to credit card companies that give them out as customer rewards. If the miles lose their shine by being difficult to use, credit card companies may curb their purchases. Last year, American pre-sold $1 billion worth of AAdvantage miles to Citicorp, propping up the airline financially and showcasing the importance of miles.

In an effort to spur mileage redemption, Alaska Airlines began offering one-way awards in 2007, allowing customers to use miles for just a one-way ticket, or mix-and-match different mileage levels into one round-trip. The result has been a sharp rise in award redemption for that airline. In 2008, the number of awards redeemed with frequent- flier miles jumped 26% and mileage balances in accounts declined, according to Alaska, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc. (The airline hasn’t yet reported 2009 redemptions.)

AMR Corp.’s American and Delta now offer one-way award pricing as well. Continental and US Airways Group Inc. also allow different award levels to be combined. A flight at the cheapest award level, typically 25,000 miles round-trip for domestic itineraries, might be available for the outbound part of a trip, but not available for the return the customer wants. Book the return at the 50,000-mile level, and you get the seats you want for a total of 12,500 outbound plus 25,000 for the return, or 37,500 miles total.

Most airlines also now offer calendars on their Web sites that quickly show customers what dates have awards available, and at what mileage levels.

Still, many consumers find using miles frustrating, especially when they focus on scarce awards like summertime trips to Europe. That’s an area where there’s huge variation in availability at different airlines.

IdeaWorks, a Wisconsin-based loyalty-program consulting firm, did 6,400 booking queries last year to rank airlines by award availability on trans-Atlantic flights. The study looked for flights between April and November and found that Iberia had the most liberal offering among 10 U.S. and European airlines, with 83% of the Iberia queries offering award seats. Lufthansa’s program was second at 66% and British Airways third at 63%.

American out-distanced U.S. airlines with 58% of queries successful. United offered awards on only 18% of queries made and US Airways, which has far fewer flights to Europe than larger rivals, offered award seats on only 4% of the queries IdeaWorks made.

The study reinforces the importance of checking partner airlines: Iberia is a partner of American, for example, but American’s Web site doesn’t automatically display all available awards on its partners, IdeaWorks noted.

Booking an Award Trip? Here are some tools! is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Expert Flyer – How to upgrade your seats

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:01:28 +0000

I’ve used Expert Flyer’s service before, and while I’m still not convinced it was worth my $9.99 a month for finding upgradeable seats - as with other free tools such as SeatCounter (which I talk about in this post) I can track the flights I need myself – I found it useful for other features, such as the ‘Fare Information’ that would give me more options for itineraries and carriers that a typical search engine wouldn’t find.

As I said, I’m still debating if it’s worth it or not, so I may give it a try again in the future.

For those that haven’t heard of their service, here’s a recent article on the Wall Street Journal with more details.

Stuck in a middle seat? Here’s a trick for upgrading

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nov 16 2009 | By Scott McCartney

Can’t get the seat you want on an upcoming flight? Now there’s a waiting list, of sorts.

ExpertFlyer.com, a subscription service popular with hard-core road warriors, has added a feature that will alert you when a currently occupied seat you want opens up for a flight. If you want a specific seat, such as a bulkhead or exit row, you can get notice if it becomes available. If you are stuck in a middle seat, for example, you can sign up for alerts for any aisle or window seat.

ExpertFlyer.com

A screen shot from ExpertFlyerLike fares, seat inventory jumps around a lot before a flight departs. Sometimes airlines block seats and then open them. Other times people with reserved seats cancel or change flights. Seats open up as premium customers get upgraded. But unless you keep checking the seat map for your flight, it’s hard to follow. ExpertFlyer can now check for you on 84 different airlines around the world.

ExpertFlyer costs $4.99 a month for basic service, or $9.99 a month (or $99.99 for one year) for premium service. The seat alert function is available only with premium service. Two other nifty features that alert you when specific frequent flier award tickets and upgrades become available, or when a specific fare class such as discounted business class opens up, are also available only with premium service. The fare class and upgrade/award alert features work on only 22 airlines, but include Delta, American, Alaska and Hawaii in the U.S.

ExpertFlyer’s bread-and-butter service for heavy duty travelers allows users to peer into the booking inventory of airlines. ExpertFlyer lets you hunt for a specific fare class that may come with upgrade privileges, for example, but you have to immerse yourself in the arcane world of airline booking codes.

The growing number of alert tools available to frequent fliers can really help cut through the complexity of airline tickets. Yapta.com offers alerts on fares for specific flights you may be shopping, or specific hotels. FlightStats.com offers alerts on flight delays and cancellations. Airlines and larger booking sites are offering more and more, and savvy travelers are finding they can help. Share some of your favorites with other travelers in comments.

Expert Flyer – How to upgrade your seats is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Finding number of seats available in a flight

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:58:53 +0000

I was trying to get an upgrade for my next flight to Hawaii, though upgrade seats were sold out. And since there’s no waitlist for upgrades, I have to check on a daily basis to see if anything opens, otherwise try my luck 2 hours before the flight at the airport.

SeatCounter is a simple website, though makes the process much easier to check number of open seats available under each booking class on several airlines at once. While I could still find that information through other ways, I like that I can get the info I need in one step and even compare with other airlines if I’m comparing flights before booking. No spending 15 mins on phone with customer service anymore… now I just have to cross my fingers for two seats to open up on class U for Hawaii and vacation here I go!

Finding number of seats available in a flight is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Best Travel Websites – T&L’s Top Travel Websites of 2009

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:23:24 +0000

This is why I leave it to the experts…. this list from Travel & Leisure is fantastic and can definitely be used as reference for any of your travel needs! I won’t even add my comments or edits as I’d recommend all of the websites they list! Thanks Travel & Leisure!

Air Travel

Search For Flights

kayak.com

Click Factor: Even as its competition grows, Kayak remains the most functional and flexible airfare-search site, compiling data from more than 200 online sources. The site is particularly good for trip planning: it allows you to search a whole region, such as the Caribbean, Europe, or Asia, and (with the Buzz tool) you can see the best fares that other Kayak users have turned up for upcoming weekends or a given month. Kayak’s filter options make it easy to find the combination of price, schedule, and even airline alliance that suits your needs. We also like the new baggage-fee calculator.

T+L Tip: For the best deals, we advise looking for fares here and then going directly to the primary source to book.

Runner-up: mobissimo.com.

Predict When to Buy

bing.com/travel

Click Factor: Formerly farecast.com, this site is now backed by Microsoft and works and looks better than ever, forecasting whether fares on major domestic routes will go up or down. Its easy-to-use seven-day Price Predictor gives research-backed recommendations about whether you should book now or wait until fares drop. (See “Fare Forecasting”for a closer look.)

Drawback: It searches only half the sources that Kayak does and occasionally doesn’t transfer you directly to the purchasing page. You may have to reenter your search criteria after it sends you to the airline or online travel agency, which can be frustrating.

Ensure You’re Getting the Lowest Fare

orbitz.com

Click Factor: Of the scores of websites offering best-price guarantees, Orbitz distinguishes itself with the most comprehensive program: should another customer book a cheaper fare after you’ve booked yours, you will be sent a check for the difference automatically. (See “What’s New at the Top Booking Engines” for information on Orbitz’s Hotel Price Assurance program.)

Runners-up: Both expedia.com and priceline.com offer similar services for airfares, but require on-their-toes travelers to do price research of their own: if you find a less costly flight than your original within 24 hours of booking, you may contact the website for a refund of the difference and a $50 coupon to put toward future bookings.

Book Low-Cost Carriers Within Europe

wegolo.com

Click Factor: With low-cost carriers still proliferating across the Continent, Wegolo searches 75 different airlines serving more than 700 destinations. It works best for advance bookings, but can do last-minute searches as well.

T+L Tip: Click on “price” to get a breakdown of the taxes and fees you’ll pay, which, on certain flights, can be as much as (if not more than) the ticket itself.

Runners-up: dohop.com and whichbudget.com.

Find Bargains in Asia

zuji.com

Click Factor: Travelocity’s Asian affiliate links with online agencies in six countries, often yielding bigger savings than you’ll find outside Asia. It even performs flexible international searches: up to three days before and after a specific date on business- and first-class fares.

T+L Tip: Zuji excels at finding fares within Asia; if you’re looking for flights to the region, try searching on itasoftware.com to get an idea of when the best fares are offered, then do a final check and book through Zuji.

Perform Flexible-Date Searches

itasoftware.com

Click Factor: Orbitz, Cheaptickets, and many other online aggregators actually run on Ita Software’s platform, and, frankly, it’s easier to perform a flexible-date search here. You can look by weekend or over the span of one month. The site digs up special fares that even the airlines’ own reservations agents don’t know about. It breaks down all the components of the price, so you’ll see base fares separate from taxes and fees. It also alerts you to tight layovers.

T+L Tip: Since you can’t book on the site, keep the fare code it gives you handy: You’ll need to reference it when you call the airline to buy your ticket.

Receive Fare-Sale Alerts

airfarewatchdog.com

Click Factor: This human-powered site separates itself from other, less intelligent ones by searching where most don’t (including for Web-only fare sales) and alerting you to deals virtually the second they happen. Bonus: the Airfarewatchdog team hunts down promo code deals, including those on Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air, calculates the discount, and lists the fares one by one. And unlike many online travel agents, a team of actual people is constantly verifying seat availability; if it’s no longer available, the site won’t list it.

T+L Tip: Read Airfarewatchblog for more ideas on searching and great insight into airline travel in general.

Track a Flight

flightaware.com

Click Factor: Created for aviation buffs, this sophisticated tracking site is also remarkably consumer-friendly: Just plug in an airline and flight number, and it’ll show you on a live, animated map exactly where the plane is. It also has great weather updates and a function that allows you to type in an airport code and see all the flights that are coming and going. Just for fun: Want to see every Boeing 737 in the air over the United States? Look it up here.

Drawback: The service area is limited to the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. If you’re tracking a flight originating from outside those places, Flightaware will pick it up only when it enters the area.

Make the Best of a Layover

ifly.com

Click Factor: The most comprehensive airport guide online, it has terminal maps, layover ideas, restaurant information, ground transportation, and even security checkpoint wait times at 400 domestic airports.

Drawback: Some major international airports aren’t represented (why Bahrain and not Dubai or Abu Dhabi, for example?) and some tips are discouragingly generic, such as layover ideas for Paris-Charles de Gaulle International Airport: “Go to the Information Center.”

Hotels

Pick the Best Room

tripkick.com

Click Factor: Like seatguru.com, which guides fliers to the best seats on airplanes, this site gives travelers the scoop on the specific hotel room to request based on view, noise level, size, and even the quality of the bathroom. (For instance, request an odd-numbered room in the MGM Grand’s 100 Wing for the best view of the Las Vegas Strip.)

T+L Tip: Keep checking back on the site, which is quickly growing: At press time, it had reviews for 500 hotels in 27 cities, with a new city scheduled to launch each month.

Choose a Hotel by Feature

raveable.com

Click Factor: How has a six-month-old hotel review site already amassed more than 35 million opinions? By collecting them from other sites, such as TripAdvisor, Yahoo!Travel, and VirtualTourist. Raveable aggregates reviews and—even better—uses them to highlight each property’s pros and cons and create roundups of hotels by special feature, such as “Hotel rooms with Jacuzzi.” It also helps your search by separating hotels into categories such as “romantic,” “kid friendly,” or proximity to nearby attractions.

Drawback: Though Raveable’s ratings seem authoritative, don’t forget that they’re based on averages of both biased and unbiased reviews. As you would with TripAdvisor (see below), take the time to read the actual reviews.

Hear What Hotel Guests Really Think

tripadvisor.com

Click Factor: With 100 percent user-generated reviews of roughly 70,000 hotels around the world, TripAdvisor is not only helpful but also highly entertaining. Sure, it’s had its problems with planted posts, but its 11 million members can generally sniff out a rat, and the sheer volume of posts helps highlight the odd fake review. Plus, we love the unvarnished room photos posted by users. Nothing says romantic honeymoon like putting pics of your petal-strewn bed online for the world to see.

T+L Tip: You may know it for hotels, but don’t discount TripAdvisor for flight searches. It now has a fees estimator, which accounts for extra charges for baggage, in-flight headphones, and onboard alcohol and snacks.

Score Last-Minute European Hotel Deals

laterooms.com

Click Factor: Look no further for last-minute bargains on hotel rooms, especially in popular European destinations. We love the deeply discounted rates on four-and five-star properties in the United Kingdom available through the site’s Secret Room (the names of the hotels are revealed only after you book).

T+L Tip: Hold on to the reference code LateRooms gives you; you’ll need it to get the marked-down rate when you call the hotel to book.

Vacation Rentals

Locate Your Dream Villa

homeaway.com

Click Factor: HomeAway is the one-stop shop for rentals, with the largest selection of rent-by-owner properties—more than 185,000 apartments, houses, and villas around the world. The site makes searching easy: You can look for special features, such as pet friendliness, proximity to the beach, and Internet access. Plus, HomeAway now offers up to $10,000 protection against fraud and deposit loss.

Drawback: Some properties are lacking user feedback since the site is still amassing reviews.

Runner-up: vrbo.com.

Get the Skinny on a Rental

flipkey.com

Click Factor: Majority owned by TripAdvisor, this new vacation-property site is gaining a reputation for its user reviews. Though it’s still growing, the site already has more than 90,000 listings, most reviewed by former renters.

Drawback: Although the site’s North American and Caribbean coverage is extensive, its international listings are more limited.

Trip Planning

Organize Your Trip

tripit.com

Click Factor: Forward your electronic travel confirmations to this personal travel organizer, and its Itinerator will gather them into one place, create an itinerary, and add helpful extras, such as maps, weather forecasts, events listings, and other travel information. The site’s social-networking feature will alert you if there’s a chance you could bump into a friend using the service (and with similar travel plans).

T+L Tip: Most of Tripit’s features are free, but for an annual fee of $69, you can add mobile alerts about cancellations and delays, create an inner circle to share your details with friends—or your assistant—and keep track of loyalty points. There are many ways of accomplishing these things at no charge via other Web services, but you pay for the convenience of having them all in one place.

Score a Real Package Deal

dealbase.com

Click Factor: Launched in late 2008, Dealbase compiles package deals from thousands of hotels, newsletters, rewards clubs, and online travel agencies, and then pulls apart their components, pricing them à la carte to let you know how much you’re really saving.

Drawback: More deals, please! This valuable service only covers the United States, the Caribbean, and Mexico. But it’s expanding internationally before the end of the year.

Search for Activities and Experiences

Travelocity.com

Click Factor: The booking engine’s interactiveExperience Finder compiles ideas for hotels, tours, activities, and events for 30 destinations (major U.S. cities, plus Bangkok, Barbados, Cancún, Hawaii, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico). The portal is intuitive and easy to use—we love the built-in almanac on the events calendar page—and is a great source of inspiration even if you don’t know where you want to go.

T+L Tip: Don’t miss the downloadable Travelocity Toolbar, which has deals, driving directions, language translations, time zones, a currency converter, and flight status reports.

Car Travel

Save Money on Gas

gasbuddy.com

Click Factor: Reported and updated by regular drivers, the site lists stations and their gas prices (for all fuel grades, including diesel) by state, city, or ZIP code. The interactive Trip Cost Calculator helps drivers plot their route according to which places have the best fuel prices for their vehicle type.

Drawback: Because of its dependence on “real people” to report prices, coverage can be spotty.

Runners-up: gasprices.net andgasprices.mapquest.com.

Navigate the Roads

google.com/maps

Click Factor: Google Maps remains hands-down the most functional and accurate mapping tool on the Web: just type in an address and get a location or driving directions. Even better, use the My Maps tool, which lets you customize maps with virtual tacks to note the places you want to stop along the way—great for long road trips. Google’s Street View feature, a 360-degree, eye-level view of the street, gets better every day, and you can find it on Google’s Android platform and Apple’s iPhone.

Drawback: Bear in mind that for developing countries, you’ll find major arteries, but sometimes not specific addresses.

Cruises & Specialty Travel

Find the Cruise That’s Right for You

cruisecritic.com

Click Factor: This comprehensive site picks apart virtually every sailing on the seas, with pictures, authoritative editor reviews, good last-minute deals, and news updates. Travelers can search by port of call, departure city, date, and cruise line.

T+L Tip: Use the site for researching cruises, but when it comes to booking, look to a travel agent. On most cruises, the best staterooms are reserved early through agents.

Bid on Luxury Hotels

luxurylink.com

Click Factor: If your travel dates are flexible, you can find deals of up to 65 percent off at luxury hotels around the world. The best part: there’s no membership fee to use the site.

T+L Tip: If you don’t feel like bidding, use the Buy Now feature.

Advice & Resources

Decide Where to Eat in the U.S.

yelp.com

Click Factor: Yelp has grown from a Bay Area site into a nationwide resource (with additional presence in Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom), giving establishments up to five stars based on ratings and reviews from its avid visitors, which number 25 million a month. The site’s restaurant coverage is extensive and full of off-the-beaten-path recommendations.

Drawback: Reviews can be patchy in some cities.

Runner-up: opentable.com, where reviewers must have made a reservation to write about a restaurant.

Read Practical/Thoughtful/Zeitgeisty Travel Stories

thefastertimes.com/travel

Click Factor: The new online newspaper’s travel section runs up-to-the minute travel headlines, unusual stories (an essay on hotel reviews as social commentary), exclusive book excerpts from writers such as Alain de Botton, and interactive travel maps.

T+L Tip: Check out the site’s regular Sunday travel scorecard that follows print newspapers’ travel sections.

Find the Perfect Travel Book

longitudebooks.com

Click Factor: This online bookstore brings order to the world of travel publications. While you can find much of what’s here on Amazon, Longitude takes a more neighborly attitude toward travel reading, recommending “summer reads,” “neglected classics,” “food & wine”—all organized geographically. The site’s “essential reading” list narrows the most useful reads for each region to four or five picks, helpfully grouping them at the top of the page.

T+L Tip: Can’t find what you want? Call the store. Longitude can special-order your book and its well-traveled staff can recommend books for any trip.

Runner-up: amazon.com.

Travel Toolbox

Seven sites that every globe-trotter should keep handy.

hopstop.com
Subway and bus directions for eight domestic (New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., among others) and two international (Paris and London) cities.

oanda.com
T+L’s currency converter of choice, covering 164 different currencies.

thebathroomdiaries.com
Public restroom locations for more than 120 countries.

travel.state.gov
Travel advisories covering everything from civil unrest to health concerns.

travelersnet.com
Lists phone numbers for more than 100 domestic and international airlines.

urbanrail.net
Comprehensive subway maps for 250–300 cities worldwide.

world-airport-codes.com
Searchable database of more than 9,000 worldwide airport codes.

Twitter Travel Watch

Don’t get put off by all the useless chatter out there.We give you five globe-trotting Tweeters whose travels are worth following.

Ann Curry
The venerable NBC journalist writes about newsworthy events that affect travelers (flu news, hurricanes, earthquakes).
@anncurry

Lance Armstrong
If you’re looking for adventure getaway ideas, the celebrated cyclist provides plenty of inspiration by chronicling his trips, such as a recent family hike up Aspen’s Ajax Mountain.
@lancearmstrong

Tory Burch
Whether she’s eating at Brasserie Lipp, in Paris, or shopping at Ganesh Handicraft Emporium, in Udaipur, India, the fashion designer reviews her favorite spots worldwide.
@toryburch

Jamie Oliver
When the British chef isn’t posting cooking tips, he’s offering great advice on where to eat around the globe. A recent find: Vij’s, in Vancouver.
@jamie_oliver

Yoko Ono
The artist and pop-culture icon gives the inside scoop on edgy exhibitions (“See This Sound,” a group art show in Linz, Austria) and discusses volunteer travel projects she’s involved with, such as Workcamp, in Iceland.
@yokoono

Addiotional reporting and writing by Lisa Cheng, Jennifer Flowers, Bree Sposato, and Sarah Storms.

Source: T&L Top Travel Websites of 2009

Best Travel Websites – T&L’s Top Travel Websites of 2009 is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Online Hotel Reservations, Reviews & Twitter

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:41:30 +0000

Resideo – I love the simplicity of this website. It includes reviews from tripadvisor, but without all the ads and visual polution from other websites, allows you to easily compare prices and properties and book your hotel through their reservation system.

Getaroom.com – typical search & book site, but often has good deals. I recently read on Emily Gerson’s “Maiden Voyage” blog that you can get better prices if you call their reservations number. Read Emily’s blog to understand why.

Hotelscombined – also a very simple to use website. It’s not cluttered with the information, which makes your experience become much more pleasant. I’ve also found some better deals for hotels comparing to few other sites out there.

Twihotels – twitter is now being used as an opportunity for hoteliers to grab guests looking for a place to stay by offering special services or deals. Twihotels is an application through twitter where the user says what they’re looking for and hotels contact the guests directly. Not the best approach for those loyal to a hotel chain, but could be useful if you’re looking for a deal or have no clue where to stay in your next trip. I’m curious to see what hotels are willing to do to get your business… please let me know if you’ve used it already! Read more about it on Adam Kirby’s blog

Inoqo: haven’t used it yet, but am tempted in trying soon. Focused on last minute reservations – they also connect you to hotels through twitter and claim to offer better last minute deals as hoteliers don’t want empty rooms. Update: read more about Inoqo on Adam’s blog

Priceline & Hotwire – their ‘name your own price’ or blind booking can save you a lot of money if you’re not looking for a specific hotel. Choose by location and star rating, confirm & pay your reservation, and they tell you where you’re staying after. I’ve stayed at Hudson Hotel in NYC for $110 through Priceline, which saved me about 60% from the $260 rate on the same day/room. Check BetterBidding to find tips on how to bid on Priceline & Hotwire. You’ll also find descriptions of hotel amenities to match with the description of the hotel your bidding and try to guess where you’re staying before giving them your credit card number…

Online Hotel Reservations, Reviews & Twitter is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Best Search Engines

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:57:17 +0000

As much as vacation is the time to relax and take it easy, we know that planning a trip can be stressful if we have little information in our hands. It all starts with booking your flights, hotels and car, and whether we’re swimming on money or not, maybe it’s in our nature but we’ll always want to search for the best deal. And this can consume hours if not days of our precious time, especially if we’re not looking at the right place.

So I gathered here some of my favorite search engines and booking sites, that are easy to use and where I generally find good prices and deals. As there isn’t a single site that is perfect for all countries, I’m also adding which countries or regions they are specialized in, as they may offer better prices for the location you’re looking for.

This post is a work in progress, and I’ll add more information as I find new links, and I’m also counting in our readers from all continents to contribute with their own favorite sites.

Here we go…
(Click on the name to go to their website)

- Farecompare - great deals daily, and I typically find prices to be cheaper in this site. They also get prices from several other booking sites, acting as a one stop shop. One of those worth subscribing to their newsletter and twitter feed. Works better for searches within the US or from the US to another country rather than the other way around.

- Kayak - probably one of the most popular nowadays, and it is indeed a good source, especially for trips within the US. I find it to be good as a source to find the best itineraries and prices, but often I would check the same itinerary with the carrier or hotel directly, as they may offer a slight lower price. So the advantage is that I can save time instead of looking at 15 different sites for each airline and compare them, Kayak does all that for me. And once I chose the best one, I just want to make sure I’m paying for the best price possible by comparing it with another site.

- Farecast / Bing Travel – I’ve been using Farecast for a while, and now it’s called Bing Travel. What I like about it is that it tells me when to buy my tickets, and more often than not, their forecast has worked well. If I get a yellow or red flag, I’ll wait another couple of days or so, also based on their timeline chart. Fun application. The price predictor works mostly for flights within the US and from the US, but it is also a good ‘aggregator’ and will show you where to book the best tickets.

- Decolar – One of the most popular and efficient booking systems in Brazil, along with its parent Despegar,that focuses on all other Latin American countries. Generally you’d find good prices for hotels, flights, car rentals and packages aroudn Brazil and from Brazil.

- Despegar – Same as Decolar, but focused on Latin American / Spanish speaking countries

- Rumbo – Apart from its bookings system, generally has good deals for flights or packages. Works well for Brazil, Spain and Portugal. They have coverage in other countries, though we haven’t tested it yet.

- Flight Network – specialized in flights from Canada and the US. Excellent for flights from Canada, I’ve often found tickets there to be cheaper than other US search engines, and even in airline’s websites.

- Hotels Combined – the great thing about this website is that it’s simple and easy to use. it’s not cluttered with the information, which makes your experience become much more pleasant. It also has a powerful search engine that tracks numerous hotels around the world, at very good prices.

- Ctrip - for travels around China. Easy to use, offers better deals by searching locally. Also includes destination guides with pictures and reviews of each location.

- Zuji – from the Travelocity company, speciallized in the Asia Pacific region

Other (WIP, will add notes about them soon)

- Ita Software

- Skytours

- Skyscanner

- getaroom.com

- 1800 flyeurope

- flights.com

- smartertravel

- lastminute

- air-fare.com

Best Search Engines is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Tip of the Day – Flying to several places in a foreign country? Book local!

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:40:39 +0000

If your trip includes several destinations in the same country or even continent, you might want to compare prices for your hotel, flight or car rental with local search engines and booking sites.

Many times the prices at these local search engines will be much lower, as they’ll be able to find more options and deals for the destination which they’re specialized.

And while these local sites may already show lower prices, you may still be able to get it cheaper. The prices shown for foreigners sometimes can be more expensive than the ones shown to locals.

For example, if you are traveling from the US to Argentina, and after your stay in Buenos Aires you want to go to Bariloche, in the Patagonia, you will get cheaper fares if you book the Buenos Aires – Bariloche leg from Argentina. Unfortunately if you’d really have to be in Argentina to get that fare, as your computer’s location can be tracked by your IP address…

Of course not always we have that option, but perhaps you know a person that resides in that country that could buy it for you or can wait until you arrive at your first destination and get your air tickets there.

For more information on search engines and bookings sites for different countries, check this post: Best Search Engines

Tip of the Day – Flying to several places in a foreign country? Book local! is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Search Engines – Comparing Prices for Different Flying Dates

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:00:29 +0000

I’ve been thinking about adding something about travel search engines, and today I came across this article that was published on the New York Times. It has a good summary of the most popular search engines, in case you haven’t heard about them yet.

I’ll soon add a post with more search engines I like, but feel free to post a comment with your preferred ones too, especially if you know of any international/local website that sometimes can show more competitive rates than the US sites…

(don’t forget to add the link and a brief summary so other readers can benefit from it! thanks!)

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How To Find Cheaper Flying Dates

By Michelle Higgins

Most travel booking sites assume you know where and when you want to fly. But what if you’re building an entire trip around a cheap flight? Now, a growing number of Web sites are offering tools to make that search easier.

ITA Software, which provides the technological backbone for many airfare shopping sites, allows anyone to scan an entire month’s fares for the cheapest rate. Log in as a “guest” and click on “month long search” in the right hand corner. Travelers can also narrow searches by the number of stops and length of trip. To book the actual ticket, users must go to another site.

Bing Travel the new Microsoft search engine that uses the prediction tools of Farecast, offers a similar option, found under “plan trips,” about half way down the page. To compare prices for different routes — say, New York to Paris versus New York to Frankfurt — click “select a city.”

Bing.com A month-long comparison of flights from New York’s JFK to Paris or Frankfurt.

FareCompare, another airfare shopping site, introduced a Deal Finder tool in late June that filters deals by month. The tool also prompts users to specify a departure airport, budget and destination (e.g., North America, Summer in Europe, Beaches and other choices from a drop-down menu).

Kayak has a “flexible dates” option and a calendar that shows the best fares found by other Kayak users in the last 48 hours. (Registration required.)

Travelocity has a flexible search that looks for fares up to 330 days out. (One flaw: it doesn’t allow users to narrow choices to nonstop flights.)

Expedia has a Trend Tracker tool that shows the least expensive time to visit a place based on past prices. Specify a point of origin and destination, and the tracker generates a chart that plots historical air fares over a two-year period.

Most sites, including Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Kayak, also offer fare alerts that tells users when the price for a particular route drops.

Source: How to find cheaper flying dates – The New York Times

Search Engines – Comparing Prices for Different Flying Dates is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

…because no one enjoys sitting by the bathroom on a plane

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:04:36 +0000

If you ever had to sit on the last row of the plane, right by the bathroom where the seats don’t recline, or sat on the first row thinking you’d have lots of space, and ended up with no place for your legs and a very cold emergency exit seat, you’ll love this website.

Seatguru.com has seating charts for most aircrafts from airlines all over the world.

Before confirming the seat for your next flight, go to their website, select the airline and the aircraft model. The seating chart will show where the exit rows and bathrooms are, how many seats per row, and what are the in-flight amenities such as video, ac power, etc. Mouse over the seats and get a detailed description about them

…because no one enjoys sitting by the bathroom on a plane is a post from: www.kristraveler.com