100 Days of Gratitude - Day 47 - Internet Travel Sites
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:36PM I'm a bit out of the ordinary from the "regular guy" in a lot of ways.
One of the ways is because I travel so much. I spend 100 or more nights a year in hotel rooms and I book the travel not only for me, but also for our Game Shows To Go crew.
Logistics of booking all of this travel takes up much of my time, but the ease of internet travel sites makes it a lot, lot faster than it used to be.
Here are some of my favorite travel web sites.
Southwest Airlines - though the changes to their Rapid Rewards program has diminished my enthusiasm for Southwest Airlines a bit, they are still the friendliest and the most cost effective major airline in the business. They used to also have the best frequent flyer program, but now it's like everyone elses... but I digress. They're a great airline and they save me money.
Orbitz - I use Orbitz the second most to check alternate cities that we can fly into - and I use them for booking hotels all the time. NOTE: you can't book Southwest via Orbitz - and I believe there are a few other airlines that you can't book through them either. But they're great for hotels, rental cars and flights on most other airlines.
Priceline - I use priceline exclusively for rental cars - at least for the name your own price option. The problem with using them for airfare is that you don't get to pick your own schedule, and I need to be somewhere when I need to be there - not just "sometime" on that date. Using the name your own price option I generally save 20-40% on car rentals - and it's always through a major carrier. Note - you don't always get to use the "fast lane" or frequent renter lines if you book through priceline - and you don't get airline miles/credits - so make sure the savings is worth the extra time.
When I first started touring I had to call my travel agent and then have her check all of the options available, then call me back. Having access to the flights myself lets me pick what's truly important to me. It's much easier now.
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