From Tom Parsons - Bundling Airfare And Hotel Can Bring Spring And Summer Bargains
Mar-30-2012

Now that Easter is just a week away, it's time to look for vacation deals. We are seeing vacation package prices come down to many destinations when you compare the rates with April prices.

We've seen prices drop by almost $200 to San Juan, Puerto Rico, by $200 to Cancun, by $300 to Orlando and by up to $500 to the Bahamas.

Remember that when you are planning your vacation, you are under no obligation to leave on a weekend and return on a weekend. If you are traveling the last week of June through August 14, you have to be flexible and you should look at Tuesday or Wednesday departures and returns. If you must depart on a weekend, you'll find better rates for departures on Saturday with returns on Tuesday or Wednesday. Friday and Sunday are the most popular days of the week to travel so they are almost always the most expensive days to fly and Sunday to Sunday trips could cost you double.

Also remember that if you don't have school age children, you can easily save money by not traveling during peak times like Spring Break, July, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you do have young kids, you will need to spend more time looking for deals.

When you are flying domestic, it is important to buy not only airfares but also packages during airfare sales. When it comes to packages, hotels have been negotiating deals just fine, but we see fewer discounts on airfares than we did in the past, except when the airlines are offering sales.

In addition to seeing hotel discounts, we sometimes see governments offer travel rebates to encourage travel during slower seasons. Right now you can save up to $500 off air/hotel vacation packages to Grand Bahama Island, which includes Freeport, and $250 off air/hotel packages with four or five night stays and $400 off stays of six nights or longer to Nassau and other Bahamas islands. Travel to Grand Bahama Island must be booked by April 3, for travel through June 20 and travel to Nassau and other islands must be booked by May 14 for travel through October 31. Blackout dates for travel to Nassau are June 21 through August 18. For details, click here.

Right now, most of the domestic sales we have been seeing are for travel through June 27. For summer travel, you may have to wait until you are within 30 days of your departure date to get the best deals. If you are planning to travel after August 15 into early fall, we expect to see blowout domestic sales and international deals. You should hold off booking those trips until the second or third week of June because that is when the European fares should go down and it is also the time we see Southwest offer anniversary sales. We should see some great fares and we often see great hotel prices and add on perks offered to encourage travel in September and October.

Destinations that we expect to see deals to from Dallas include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando. While we should see some nice fare sales to these destinations, you can definitely save money by bundling airfare and hotel into a package. As we go into summer, we often see better prices for sun and fun destinations when you compare rates to Spring Break travel, because these destinations are competing with a lot of other locations that have nice summer weather.

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Posted by Ken at 6:49 PM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print