air lines deals:Combine weekend fares. Last minute weekend fares are often great deals, but most people don’t realize that they can construct itineraries by combining two of these fares. Let’s say you want to fly from Boston to San Antonio next weekend, and you’ve signed up for all the weekly newsletters alerting you of these deals but there’s no Boston/San Antonio deals listed. However, if there’s a Boston to Atlanta fare for $128 round-trip, and an Atlanta to San Antonio fare for $108 round-trip, then there is indeed a Boston/San Antonio fare as well. Just buy two separate fares (we’ve noticed that Travelocity and some other sites do a good job of combining weekend fares in this manner). You can even combine such fares on two different airlines, but make sure you leave enough time in between connecting flights in case there’s a delay
airlines deals: Sign up for Ding fares and Frontier’s fare alerts. Southwest offers daily “Ding” deals that pop up on your computer (announced by an audible “ding”, thus the name) that can save a few bucks off their already low fares at http://www.southwest.com/ding. Frontier Airlines has begun sending out similar fares by email. In both cases, the fares expire the same day they’re announced but they’re often good for travel far into the future. Frontier doesn't list its excellent weekend fares anywhere but on their own site at flyfrontier.com.
airlines deals:Buy hotel air packages. It’s often cheaper to buy an air/hotel package rather than airfare alone. When we say “cheaper” we mean that the total package with hotel is often less than the airfare without the hotel component. Site59.com is the online leader in this field. Travelocity owns Site59, so you’ll often see “TotalTrip” options on Travelocity just above the airfare-only search results. Don’t ignore these deals! Usually, they work best only if there are two of you traveling since the hotels are based on double occupancy. They’re especially useful for last minute travel. Tour operators and your local travel agent also sell packages that might save you money, although not necessarily on last minute deals.
