February 2005  Email this  Print this
 License or reprint this article
TRAVEL
Package Deals
by Sean O’Neill
The Web's big three travel sites -- Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity -- have long offered vacation deals on prepackaged air, hotel and automobile reservations. But now they're offering "custom" packages that let you pick your airline, flight time, hotel, rental-car company and type of car, and still enjoy big savings. Case in point: Expedia recently offered a five-night getaway to the Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort, in Maui, Hawaii, including two round-trip tickets from Denver for $2,487 -- $770 less than booking the room and tickets separately on the site. Plus, Expedia's package was $390 cheaper than the lowest airfare and hotel rate that we could find at other sites and by contacting the hotel and airline (with reasonable layovers).
Even better, when we added a five-day, midsize-car rental to our package, our bill dropped by $123, to $2,364 -- almost $1,000 less than if we had booked the same pieces separately through Expedia, and about $600 less than the cost of the best fare and rates we found elsewhere. To book a custom package, click on the "Vacation" or "Vacation Packages" tab on the travel site's home page.
Big price breaks happen when airlines, hotel chains and rental-car companies try to woo consumers from rival companies without sparking a price war. Hoteliers, for example, like to bury discounts in packages that don't break out the room rate.
Expect to find the best deals for domestic and Caribbean destinations (you'll do better by including a Saturday-night stay in your trip). We also found that midweek departures are often cheaper than weekend departures for package trips to such popular vacation spots as Las Vegas. But travelers going overseas should book pieces separately because custom packages to international destinations do not usually offer sizable discounts.
Don't assume that the package price will always give you the best deal. You may find a better fare (and lower your total vacation price) by buying tickets on, say, Southwest Airlines, which doesn't sell seats on the top travel sites.
Some things to look for:
Expedia pioneered custom packages in 2001. The site lets you mix and match hotels, flights and rental cars. And Expedia has a new feature to help customers judge a package's price. After the site pairs up pieces of travel -- say, a flight and a hotel room -- you'll see a box labeled "Your Savings." If buying a package instead of buying the ticket and room separately will save you money, a "Details" link will appear in the box. Clicking on the link shows how much you'll save. If you don't see the "Details" link, you can nab a better deal by buying a la carte.
Orbitz introduced its custom packages in 2003. You can pair a flight with a room, or a room with a car rental. The agency says that by early spring it will let customers add rental cars to flight-and-hotel packages. Orbitz offers a one-page grid that lists airlines and hotels with the total prices placed side by side. A similar grid matches car rentals and hotels.
Travelocity launched its custom packages for flights and hotels in 2003, and added rental cars last fall. Its package features work the same as Expedia's (minus the "Details" link).
--Research: Elizabeth Kountze |
MAGAZINE
