How do I find the REAL travel deals?

[freemonkey]

I've seen info on this on TV, but I can't remember. Where do I go to find airline deals? I went to a bunch of the websites that advertise that they can get me a great price, but I wasn't impressed. C'mon, give with the secrets

[Crumb]

bookingbuddy.com has links to a bunch of different sites, including the cheaper ones.

[Dingfod]

If you are wanting to leave real soon, submitting a bid on priceline.com can work, if you're willing to let them decide what time and what airline you fly on and you're willing to gamble that they'll actually sell you tickets for that price. A number of times I've bought one or two day advance tickets at or below the 14-day advance discount fares.

One time I bid $300 for a round-trip ticket for Portland, Oregon to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my neice; it was refused. Rather than go up $10 or $25 on my re-bid, I raised my bid by $1. $301 was accepted by Delta Airlines with 2 days notice at a time the 14-day advance fare was going for $310.

Another time, I flew one-way from Salt Lake City to Austin for $169 on America West using priceline.com. Another time before that one, on a lark, two days notice, I bought a round-trip Salt Lake City, UT to Houston ticket on Delta for $99. I actually didn't think they would accept it. Worst thing about that one was I was forced to go ahead fly to Houston.

Where is Sir Freddy when you need him?

[Skep]

My mom and sister have found good deals at Tom Parson's BestFares.com (http://www.bestfares.com/home.asp). :pilot:

[godfry n. glad]

I've had fairly good luck at priceline.com. See warrenly's comments above. That kinda thing happened with me, too.

godfry

[LadyShea]

I have saved a lot of money on Priceline, but the flying times sucked bad. Usually I check out cheaptickets.com and travelocity and see who has the better deal. Saved about half on my ticket to Hawaii at cheaptickets.

[pescifish]

I've had some amazing deals with Priceline for hotels all at the last minute. I've never done airline tickets with them, though. I'm usually more interested in nonstop, frequent flyer membership and the schedule than price for airline tickets. I get my airline tickets online at the airline's website.

Priceline is a leap of faith: one Friday afternoon I decided to fly to Phoenix/Scottsdale AZ that evening. I had an almost expired Southwest free flight voucher, so the airline was covered. But I went to priceline and indicated the parameters: 4 stars within x miles of airport. I bid a ridiculous amount ($32, iirc) and watched my credit card get charged without knowing which hotel.

I ended up at a resort Sheraton in a mini-suite overlooking a golf course. The guy at the desk said it was a $225 room. Probably they figure $32 is better than an empty room. Plus I'm sure they made some bucks on the room service I ordered.

[freemonkey]

Thanks for the leads. I was afraid I was going to have to go somewhere this week, but I think I can wait another week or two.

I wish it was a vacation or a capricious jaunt, but its not.