Score travel deals on Twitter

You may have dismissed Twitter as yet another online space for blatant self-promotion, but it turns out there is a whole lot more use for Twitter than simply keeping up to date on what Lindsay Lohan ate for breakfast or where Ashton Kutcher woke up this morning. Twitter can also be a powerful tool used for saving money and scoring travel deals. It may even change how exactly you go about making your travel plans.

For example, discount carrier JetBlue has a twitter feed which only announces deals on last-minute flights every Monday—and they aren’t the only airline who has started offering up special fares and promotions via Twitter. (Follow @JetBlueCheeps for the weekly deals)

The greatest part about finding travels on Twitter? You can choose your level of participation on the social networking site. Don’t feel like sending your daily thoughts out into Twitterland? Than simply choose to follow sites and companies that offer up deals via Twitter and check the site exclusively when you are on the prowl for travels deals or in the midst of planning your next vacation. No tweets about your life necessary.

Tweet yourself to Hawaii

The Marriott Hawaii started a “Tweet yourself to Hawaii” promotion, which is awarding a total of 25 free trips to Hawaii including round-trip airfare for two on Hawaiian Airlines, a 5-night stay in the Marriott hotel in Honolulu and a car rental from Hertz. Read more about the contest at the web site, www.marriotthawaiitweets.com or check out twitter.com/marriotthawaii for more information on how to enter via Twitter.

Travel Twitterers you should follow

Wendy Perrin, who writes the Perrin Post for Conde Naste Traveler, recently gathered up 21 travel-related Twitteres you should follow for great deals, discounts and news about travel deals and fare sales. Included on her list are big airlines like Jet Blue and Virgin America, as well as discounter travel sites, like Hot Wire’s @Travel-ticker and Priceline’s @The Negoitiator.

If the list of travel twitterers that could save you money isn’t enough, Perrin also wrote a great article on How to Tweet your way to amazing travel deals. In her article, Perrin discusses how some lucky travelers snagged $444 round-trip tickets from the West Coast to Australia and $9 fares from JFK to Nantucket simply by following Rick Seany of Farecompare.com (Follow @RickSeaney). CheapTicketLinks also has it’s very own Twitter stream, with daily deals and more (follow @Airfare).

Perrin says that by following the right people, you’ll be among the first to hear about airfare sales, get access to steep Twitter–only discounts on hotel rooms or last–minute island–vacation packages, hear timely advice from travel experts, maybe even win a free hotel night, a day pass to an airline lounge club, or bonus frequent–flier miles.

Tweets from the BootsnAll Team

If you are looking for travel advice related tweets, you can also of course follow tourist boards and travel web sites. Travel web site BootsnAll also has a few different twitterers—including co-founder Chris Heidrich who tweets about various travel musings from around the BootsnAll Network (@BootsnAll), Jessica Speigel who tweets about travel to Italy (@italylogue) and myself, Julie Blakley, who tweets about travel to Paris and France (@WhyGoFrance).

More Twitter Travel News:

• 5 Ways Twitter can save you Money
• Travel Insights Survey Reveals how Twitter is being used by the Travel Industry
• Where can a Tweet Take You? On a Dream Vacation…That’s Where!