Don’t you hate that every time you check the price of a flight you want to take, it’s different? You never see the same price twice. You can look on a Wednesday afternoon, and get one price, but by Wednesday night it’s higher. Then the next day it might be a little lower again. How are you supposed to know when the best time to buy your airline tickets is if it’s always changing - going up and down?

Orbitz wants to make this easier for you. Buy your airline tickets whenever you want. If the prices go down and someone else buys a ticket on that same flight and gets a better price than you did, they’ll refund you the difference.

Now you don’t have to wait and hope that the prices will go down and not up. If you’re happy with the airline ticket price, buy it now…knowing that if the prices get better and someone else gets a better price, you’ll get that same price automatically!

I think that’s pretty cool. Of course it would be perfect if no matter what you’d get refunded for a lower price - if anyone else bought it or not - but let’s face it…that will never happen anywhere. So that’s pretty cool that Orbitz is willing to do this! They’re so big anyway that lots and lots of people use them to book their trips, so it shouldn’t be a problem having someone else book the same flight.

Hopefully we’ll see other travel companies join in.  This is a really cool idea!

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If you’re looking to plan a trip outside the country, you might be looking for a website that will help make it easier. Vayama is just that, and more. You put in the location you’re leaving from, as well as the destination (or all of the destinations) that you will be stopping at on your trip. It will then search over 100 airlines to find you the best prices and itineraries. They even have a nice map that will shoe you exactly how your flights will work out.

I just tried it on a trip I’m hoping to take in the next few years and was surprised at how easy the site was to use, and how nice the map was. The next time I am traveling abroad, I’ll be using this site!

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You can save up to $650 per couple during Funjet Vacations American Airlines Sale!

If you’re going to be traveling between May - August of 2008, and can book your trip before May 1st, you’re in luck. Here are just a few of the destinations you can travel to and get a big discount!

• Cancun/Riviera Maya
• Cozumel
• Puerto Vallarta
• London
• Paris
• Maui
• Oahu
• Jamaica
• Nassau
• Puerto Plata & Punta Cana
• St. Lucia
• Aruba
• Orlando
• Las Vegas
• …and more!

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When you travel, no matter where you go, there is almost one thing that always happens. You have to wait. You can be stuck in an airport waiting for them to call your flight, you can be on that 9 hour flight that doesn’t feel like it will ever end, you can even be sitting in a car driving to your destination. No matter how you travel though, there will always be time that you don’t have anything to do.

A lot of people like reading books, watching DVDs, or even listening to music while waiting. Have you considered listening to books or podcasts though?

These days almost everyone has an mp3 player. You can easily download some of your favorite podcasts, and listen to them on your trip. Sometimes you can even find a podcast about your destination, so you can listen while you’re on your way to your destination!

Even better, podcasts are free, so you can just download them and go! You can get great entertainment (and learn a lot as well) without having to spend any extra money. Sounds good to me!

Here is a perfect example. Here is a list of podcats by Frommers.com. You’re sure to learn something great from them! Just taking a quick glance, they have a podcast about taking better pictures, saving money in Washington D.C., standing up to the airlines, and a lot more. You can be sure that the next time I travel I will be downloading some of these podcasts and will be bringing them with me. What a fun way to pass the time!

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Looking to go to Las Vegas but don’t want to spend a fortune? Southwest has some great deals for Las Vegas vacations.

Code MAR60 can get you $60.00 off of any 2 night or more package now through March 20th. You can also get up to $90.00 off if you use that same code and stay at least 3 nights at the MGM Mirage.

This is a great way to have a fun vacation without having to spend a lot.

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It seems each time you look at how much it costs to fly, it keeps going higher and higher. Of course, we also have to worry about fuel surcharges now. When I was at the New York Times Travel Show, Arthur and Pauline Frommer brought up the fact that airfare keeps getting more expensive. They even noted that at the time a British Airways flight was charging a $299.00 fuel surcharge - on top of the price of the ticket!

So, the question becomes, how do you make sure you find the cheapest possible flight? They gave some great ideas…and I have used most of these websites myself to find good deals!

Kayak - This is where I personally go first, and where I almost always find the best price. It’s also really quick and easy to use, so I recommend it.
SideStep - is very similar to Kayak in that it searches many different websites to get you the best price. It was even bought by Kayak recently!
Momondo - This is the first time I had heard about it, but so far it does seem interesting, and I will go back the next time I am looking to buy a flight.
Mobissimo - is also a site that I have been to before, and is very helpful in finding prices.

While all of these sites check multiple sites, I would still go to a few of them just to make sure I am getting the best price. But look at it this way…by going to these 4 websites, you have effectively searched hundreds of different websites for the best price!

Another website that was mentioned is Yapta. It can be used two ways. First, when your looking at a flight, you can have them email you when the price of that flight goes down. They also help you once you buy your ticket. What happens is you let them know what price you bought it at, and they will email you if the price goes down. Depending on the airline, you can get money back, or a credit for a future flight! Not too bad for a few seconds worth of work typing in your flight info!

With all of these websites, while you might still be paying a lot for airfare these days, you can be sure you’re paying the lowest possible price!

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Are you looking for a nice relaxing vacation, but don’t want to spend a lot of money? United Vacations is having a sale right now, and have some great prices. Here are a few examples:

• Mexico - Including roundtrip flight to Los Cabos, 3 nights at the Royal Solaris Los Cabos Resort & Spa for $599, regularly $899.
• Caribbean - Including roundtrip flight to Aruba, 3 nights at the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort Aruba for $789,regularly $1,099.
• United States - Including roundtrip flight to Las Vegas, 2 nights at the Mirage for $244, regularly $319.
• …and a lot more.

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Looking for some new luggage for your next vacation? Sometimes newer luggage is lighter, easier to move around, and help you organize even better. New luggage can help make your vacation even better. You know how hard it can be dragging luggage through an airport, and all around to get to your destination. Luggage Online has some great deals going on right now, including huge discounts on many name brand companies.

To make that even better, you can get an additional 15% off your entire purchase (certain brands are excluded) when you use code ACTIVE now through March 14th.

Another thing I really like about them is that they have free shipping, and free returns. So if it turns out that the piece of luggage just isn’t what you thought it was, you can return it without having to worry about paying for shipping it.

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If you fly even rarely, you most likely have encountered a weather delay while you are waiting for your flight to leave.

The airline doesn’t always say much, just that there are thunderstorms in the area, or maybe snow, ice, rain, or any excuse. Most of the time we believe them (unless it’s perfectly sunny out!), but are they always telling the truth?

Looking at this CNN article on Weather Delays, it looks like they might be using weather delays as an excuse!

If it’s the airlines fault that there are problems, they have to compensate you. They have to make sure you are fed, and have a place to sleep. If on the other hand something happens with the weather, that is not their fault, so they don’t have to do anything. So it seems more and more recently, they have been using that excuse, even when the weather has nothing to do with why your flight isn’t leaving!

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If you have a flight coming up, or will have to go to the airport to pick someone up from their latest trip, this post could be very helpful.

You know how it is when you rush to get to the airport 2 hours early only to find that your flight has been delayed for another hour, meaning you’ll now have 3 hours to kill at the airport. Or even worse, when you’re due to pick someone up at 5pm, and you get to the airport at 4:55pm and circle around, and around, and around…and their flight just hasn’t landed yet. Well, while of course we will never know about all flight delays ahead of time, here are a few ways you can find out if your flight (or the flight you’re picking someone up from) has been delayed, or if the airport is having delays.

If you know either the specific flight number, or at least the general time of the flight as well as where the flight is leaving from and where it is going to, you can find out specific information on that flight. There are multiple ways to do this.

The first (and probably most accurate) is to go to the website of the airline that you (or the person you are picking up) is flying. They will most likely have a search you can do to see the flight, and will tell you if it is delayed, or should leave on time. If the flight is in the air already, it will tell you where it is at the moment, and when it is scheduled to land. I’ve always found that really fun. When I am supposed to go pick my dad up from the airport, I watch as the flight gets closer to its destination.

Another way you can find out is to go to Flight Arrivals which has informations for flights at most airlines.

Sometimes entire airports get backed up. Either their is a fog, or another weather event…or even sometimes because something like that happened earlier in the day, the whole airport could be having issues.You can check out Flight Delay Information from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center. They show the biggest airports in the country, and show if they are mostly running on schedule, or if they are behind - why they are behind. If you are looking for information on a different airport, you can just enter in the airport and get specific delays for that airport. Even though the graph just shows the busiest airports, they do have information for others as well.

At the moment I am looking and while most of the country is good, Newark Airport, JFK, and Laguardia are all delayed in leaving because of the weather and low visibility. So if you’re flying out of an airport in that area today, there is a good chance your flight will be delayed.

Just note that this will never cover all delays, but it can really help. Every time I pick someone up from the airport, I watch to make sure that the flight should be coming in on time. I would have wasted hours circling the airport if I hadn’t done this to see that the flights were going to come in late. So this should really be something you check out right before you leave to go to the airport - whether you are going on a trip or are picking someone up from theirs. Hope it helps!

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