10 replies to this topic

[h0llywood]

Are these my only choices for booking a vacation? Anyone with better options for a trip for two to Hawaii in August? Anyone get any deals lately? Pie to any and all.

[ARSEN]

I'm going to Maui in May. Book flight and car rental through expedia. Don't book hotel through expedia. Call hotel directly and ask em for their best deals. Tell em it will be ur honeymoon and they might give u free upgrades when u get there.

[Hawk]

I'd say check priceline for the car for sure...big discounts to be had

If I know exactly what areas I want to stay in, I'll also priceline the hotel too.

Airfare I will do through expedia mostly...but I've also gone directly to the airline websites and gotten better deals there too.

sometimes you can get a sweet deal by booking two one way trips too...just something to consider!

[h0llywood]

So you guys don't recommend getting a flight/hotel/car package? I thought usually if you bundle them you get a bigger discount?

[Tensor]

The prices on most of those services will be about the same. The key to saving money isn't who you use, but when you search. The prices are updated instantly based on demand, so if there are a lot of people searching for the same trip, the prices will go up. If there is seemingly little demand for it at the moment, the prices will drop.

I can't remember the best times to search for flight prices, but I'm sure that info is readily available online. During the day is the worst time.

[Hawk]

I typically don't get a car unless it's somewhere I know...but hotel/air is typically a good package to get.

[Sapper]

/Shameless plug for Hipmunk.

[h0llywood]

I also find Pandaonline.com to be useful but only to Hawaii

[Mr. Belding]

So you guys don't recommend getting a flight/hotel/car package? I thought usually if you bundle them you get a bigger discount?

Sometimes.
But arsen is correct about calling the hotel. You can negotiate rates with the front desk at many hotels. Book online and there's no negotiating a better price.
Atleast call and see if you can get a better price. If not, do the bundle for simplicity's sake.

[Squirrel]

Summer time is the busy season for Hawaii. If you can wait til September or October prices are cheaper. Also check some tour operators they can get you some good deals. Aligiant Air has bundles.

[Anybodyhome]

Had my Orbitz account hacked last year and they were the absolute worst to deal with. They refused to give me any information because my email wasn't the correct username (because it was hacked). I ended up cancelling my account. It went on for about 6 weeks, nobody returning phone calls and I was able to track down the hacker's IP address myself and provide it to them. I'll never use them again.

I use Travelocity and Cheap Caribbean now when traveling the Caribbean. I usually search several sites just to see who has the cheapest at the time.