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Airline Travel Search – Finding the Best Airline Travel Deal

With the high gas prices causing travel to be expensive it is important to know how to get the best airline travel deals that are out there. There are ways to travel on a budget and there are some great airline travel search engines that you can use to find not only cheap flights, but hotels and rental cars as well. Here is what to do.

The first thing you need to do is compare all the prices that are out there. You can use Priceline, Expedia, SouthWestAir, and a handful of other online sites to make sure you are getting the best deal possible. They will also let you book a flight, hotel, and rental car in a package deal for even more savings. Shop around so that you get the cheapest airline deal possible.

The next thing you can do is book a last minute travel package. A lot of the travel sites have tons of cheap deals at the last minute that you can take advantage of. You can usually save up to 50% doing this and get a great deal on a top destination. You just have to be flexible and willing to go at the drop of a hat.

The last way to save on your airline travel with a top airline travel search engine is to fly out on Tuesday and come back on either a Tuesday or a Thursday. These are the best days to fly for a better price. If you check the websites that book airline travel deals you will find that if you fly on Tuesdays and Thursdays you can usually save about $30 per ticket or so. Sometime even more.

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Finding Great Travel Deals Through an Online Travel Agency

With the current state of the economy, saving money is increasingly important to family, couples, and even individuals. That does not mean that you have to sacrifice your vacation, however. There are a number of online travel agencies that are offering discounts and low-cost vacations to people who may think they can’t afford to travel. In actuality, if you do your research, you can take a vacation even on a shoestring budget. Here are some tips to help you find a great travel deal from an online travel agency.

Be Sure to Ask for a discount

As the saying goes, “ask and ye shall receive” right? Actually, this tip really does work, whether you are working with an online store or brick and mortar travel agency. Plan the vacation of your dreams, and when you see the bottom line, ask how the price can be dropped. If you start with a very low budget, some agencies may not include some of the best features of a vacation, but by starting high and THEN looking for discounts, you might be able to get more bang for your buck.

Tip #2: Plan a group vacation yourself.

If you really want to save money, get a group of people together to go on vacation and plan the trip for everyone using and online travel agency. Many companies have a policy that if you’re the contact person for the entire group and ensure that everyone pays on time, you get your vacation for free, or at least get a very deep discount. Planning a vacation like this has a lot of moving pieces to keep track of, but can be a great way to travel on a budget.

Tip #3: Look for coupon codes.

When you’re planning a trip with an online company, you can often find coupon codes or deals to use to get a percentage off your trip. If you’ve worked with a company in the past, you’ll likely get rebates via email from time to time. If you haven’t, though, you can still get a discount. Simply use your favorite search engine to look for the name of your travel agency and the word “coupon” or “discount.” There are sites all over the Internet that specialize in collecting codes for discounts for different companies.

Keep in mind that you should always be wary of discounts you can only get after giving your credit card information to a third party. You may be signing up for a membership that bills your credit card automatically.

Tip #4: Book your vacation during a discount period.

Most major travel companies online have slow seasons when there are fewer people booking trips. If you book your trip during this time, you could save a substantial amount of money. Everyone books trips in the summer and around the holidays, but fewer people are traveling at other times of the year.

Tip #5: Look for packages instead of building your own vacation.

When you shell out money for a vacation, you want it to be perfect. Though, if you can choose a vacation package rather than trying to create your own, you can spend a lot less money. Online travel agencies often have dozens or even hundreds of packages from which to choose. They are able to offer discounts because they get a deal from the airlines, cruise companies, restaurants, amusements parks, etc. when they book a certain number of vacations per month or per year. They pass that savings on to the consumer when they can, attempting to entice even more people to book trips.

Tip #6: Plan your trip in advance.

Last minute vacations always cost a lot more than trips that are planned months or years in advance. Although it may not be possible for you to know what you are doing three years from now, as soon as you are sure about your travel dates, make your reservation. You can save a lot of money, especially on vacation packages.

Tip #7: Look for a free vacation.

Some online travel agencies have offer different kinds of opportunities to travel. These “vacations” are more like education experiences, though, and you most likely will not find a relaxing beach in your future if you want to travel for free. Free vacations will take you to places like nature reserves, ranches, and farms, where you’ll do work in exchange for room and board. You will also probably still have to pay for your flight and a rental car. This can be a neat opportunity to see another part of the world, though, and to experience how other people live.

No matter what your price range, you can take a vacation. By using online travel agencies, there are a number of discounts available that make vacationing affordable.

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Go High-Tech to Get the Best Las Vegas Travel Deals

The days of calling up your favorite travel agent and booking your Las Vegas vacation — flight, hotel, a rental car and more — have pretty much gone the way of the typewriter: they’re still out there but seldom used. Today’s savviest travelers know to look to the Internet to cash in on great travel deals and this is especially true for cheap trips to Las Vegas. But if you want the best Vegas hotel deals, discounts on Vegas travel packages and savings on Vegas show tickets, you have to know where to look.

Start your search by getting up-to-date with the new “social media” – a fancy term for just another way to communicate online. Think places like Facebook and Twitter and you’re talking social media. Join these sites and you’ve got access to all kinds of special offers from your favorite Las Vegas hotels and casinos.

MGM Resorts for instance provides a number of very tech-trendy ways to get great up-to-date offers, event information and even answers to your travel questions through their own YourVegasBeat.com website and their Twitter persona @VegasConcierge.

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s a free service available on the Web that links you into a vast network of users who provide all types of information in short, 140-character posts called “tweets.” Think of it as a sort of global message board. By “following” company-sanctioned accounts such as @LuxorLV and @ExcaliburVegas you can get updates on shows, restaurants, special last-minute Vegas hotel offers and promos – even the news that a big slot jackpot was just hit on the casino floor.

“We wanted to create an easy way for people to connect with Vegas and everything our resorts have to offer,” said one spokesman for MGM Resorts. “How better than to use today’s technology to give people the information they want, when they want it, in the format they choose? Much of the information is not main-stream so you can get really cool insider info – like where to get a great British ale or if there are tickets left for tonight’s concert. ”

Then there are the casino resorts you can “like” on Facebook to get tuned into the best Las Vegas vacation packages. Every, and we mean EVERY, major Vegas hotel has a Facebook account and it is a rare day when you won’t find an offer for discounts on rooms, show tickets and dining deals. We particularly like the Facebook accounts of both Planet Hollywood and Caesars Palace where the posts are interesting and full of terrific offers on Strip hotel rooms and popular show tickets.

Another tip we have for getting the best hotel deals in Las Vegas is, well, at your fingertips. Or maybe we should say on your phone screen. Use your smart phone – iPhone, Android, Blackberry – and visit the application or “app” market to get all kinds of cool free info from top Las Vegas hotels. Our favorites: the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas app for the iPhone which allows users to book right from their phones and Mandalay Bay with its “Hot Offers” page with such recent deals as this – a discount suite promotion with rooms starting at less than a hundred bucks per night.

Great deals on Las Vegas travel are definitely out there if you use these tech-savvy tips.