Tomorrow morning, I’ll be traveling from sunny Florida to the snow-covered state of Maryland. When originally searching for my flights, I found a difference in up to $500 in general ticket prices per flight. This inspired me to create today’s posting. The sites below have helped me and can help you save a significant amount of money in airfare, hotels and more.
Kayak is a travel search site that specializes in airfare and hotel stays. They don’t sell plane tickets or hotel rooms, but instead help you find the best prices on each. Kayak searches information from hundreds of travel sites, letting you compare each. Purchases aren’t made through Kayak, but instead via the airline site, hotel or a travel agent.
Skyscanner is a site that strives to help you find the cheapest airline tickets. With Skyscanner, you get a comparison of flight prices for more than 670k routes via 600 airlines. To help determine the best travel dates, you can use the site to browse prices for an entire year. You can even search to find the cheapest travel destinations from the airports closest to you.
Airfare Watchdog searches for flights, checks seat availability and lists all associated taxes (i.e. international and airline site fares). Unlike many similar sites, Airfare Watchdog also provides promo code fares to get you the best deals. With this site, you’ll get actual prices of airfare upfront.
AirBNB is an online marketplace that enables anyone with commercial properties to rent out their properties. It’s a reputation-based site full of reviews. With this site you’ll find vacation rentals, private rooms, apartments, bed and breakfasts, hotels, castles, treehouses and many other traditional and non-traditional acommodations according to their site. Search the site by city or country.
Yapta is meant to help you know when to buy low. They conduct daily price checks on flights and hotels you specify. You can an alert for when prices drop. One cool feature Yapta provides is the ability to track the price of flights you’ve already booked. If the price drops below what you paid, Yapta sends an alert when you’re eligible for a refund or travel credit from the airline.
Fare Compare is an airfare shopping site that helps you find the best deals by processing feeds from 500+ airlines. You can signup @ www.farecompare.com/signup) to get e-mail alerts on travel deals. Fare Compare also provides real-time Twitter updates on deals specific to your airport. You can use the Fare Compare Deal Finder to find deals that’s specific to your city and price you specify.
I’ve found myself using Kayak the most, but prior to this posting and my additional research, I was unaware of the refund notification Yapta provides. I’ll definitely be using this tool for future flights. Air BnB is also a very intriguing site I’ll look to take advantage of in the future. What’s your favorite site to save money on travel?
