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Nov 16, 2007 5:33 pm US/Mountain
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Want Best Travel Deals? Know The Days To Choose
DENVER (CBS4) ―
How can you make sure you get the best deal when you travel? Alan Gionet found that the answer has to do with what days of the week you're making your plans for.
"I try four or five different web sites, I keep checking the prices," says one woman. But when you ask a lot of people if they think they got the best deal, they're not sure. "And I don't know if it's a control thing or if I'm really getting a good price, I don't know."
Using the Internet can get you there cheap, says agent Alison Bacus of Travel Abacus.
She says there are a lot of things you may not know. For one, 14 day advance tickets are getting hard to find.
"Most of the airlines have reverted to advance purchases of 21 to 30 days," says Bacus.
The airlines use complicated mathematics to determine how many passengers will fly, when, how and what might be their tolerance for price. If you see a sale, don't think all the seats on a given plane will be cheap.
"Basically they have seat allotments, so when you see a special fare advertised it's going to come a very small allotment. And those allotments are smaller on Fridays and Sundays when business travelers fly."
Bacus says plan your days carefully and you can save.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are the best in terms of prices.
Airlines tend to come out with their sales mid-week, so booking then might help.
"The general consensus of opinion that I've heard from my clients is Tuesday or Wednesday is a good day to start looking."
How about hotels? Bacus says look for the business hotels on the weekends.
"If you stay in a business hotel over the weekend, an extended weekend, for example the Denver Tech Center hotels. $199 during the week, Monday to Thursday. 99 for the same room," she says on a weekend.
Do the reverse if you need a hotel during the week. Tourist hotels in Las Vegas are the biggest example of that. They can be free or nearly so on weekdays.
And car rentals can really make you feel like a bargain hunter. Because, the best price comes from a long hunt. There's no penalty for cancelling a car reservation, so book early and keep looking.
"Check back the day before you leave to see if the price has gone down," says Bacus, who adds a plug for her own line of work. "Most travel agencies have deals with consortia, that'll save you money even over what you can find on the Web."
Spend a little time and you can spend a little less money this season. Happy traveling.
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