Using Travelocity to Save Money
When you are looking for cheap hotels, it is very likely that you are also looking for cheap flights as well. Travelocity is know for its vacation package deals. Let’s assume that you want a package, a hotel and flight package. You go to Travelocity.com and type in your search criteria. Your search results will give you plenty of deals to choose from. Most of the advertised savings will range from $7-$30. However, there will be some advertised savings for as much as $300. Although, for each option, Travelocity will give you the price if you “booked separately”, this is only half of the story. You need to find out yourself how Travelocity came up with this booked separately price. How? Simple.At the top of your search results page you will see that Travelocity automatically gives you its “lowest package price option” flight. You can find out the price of this “lowest package price option” by going to the “flight” tab of Travelocity, putting in the same search criteria as you did when you searched for your package, and then making sure to match the same flight details you see in the “lowest package price option”. You now have the price of the flight which Travelocity gives you for your bundle search results. Now, say you see a package with a big advertised discount, say $300. You want to buy this bundle, but you want to make sure that the advertised savings are really savings. You already know the cost of the flight. All you need to do is pretend to book the same hotel you see in the bundle package by ONLY searching Travelocity’s standard hotel listings. When you search Travelocity’s standard hotel listings, make sure to type in the same search criteria as you did when you looked for your vacation package. Also, make sure to match the same room type you see in the package.Once you find the price of the hotel, add it to the price of the flight you found earlier. It is likely that your price will match the “booked separately” price that Travelocity gives you in its package search results. If this is the case, you have to see whether or not you can’t get a better deal for the same hotel and flight off of other sites. Some hotel booking sites might offer discounts which render any Travelocity savings meaningless. You should also try calling the hotel itself to see if they are not having any special offers.You might also see that the sum of the hotel and flight, if you booked them separately, does not match the “booked separately” price you see as part of your hotel and flight package. It might very will be lower than the “booked separately” price.You might also notice, that when you search for your hotel separately, the room types differ greatly in pricing whereas in the packages, the price is the same for all the room types. You might see an advertised $300 discount in your package, but keep in mind that that package is for a specific room type. The $300 in savings can be a direct result of Travelocity having a high price for a hotel room type in its standard listings of hotels and then removing this inflated expense in the hotel and flight package.When you are looking for a hotel and flight package keep in mind that, with Travelocity, don’t take their advertised discounts as given. Do your homework to make sure that you are really getting a discount. Although the aforementioned “discrepancies” are in the minority, it is still worth checking out how much money you are really saving before booking your package.