When it comes to getting the best deal on things like airfare and hotels, sometimes it’s about more than scouring sites like this one to get the lowest price you can find. Sometimes it’s also about paying attention to what airline or hotel chain you’re using so that you can earn more points toward free stuff.
In days gone by, you really had to be a traveling salesman to even dream about racking up enough miles on flights to get a free airline ticket before your miles expired. But these days it’s much easier to earn free trips, since airlines and hotel chains have partnerships that let you earn miles and points for things besides flights and overnight stays.
Of course, not every airline is linked to every other airline, so it’s not a good idea to just sign up for every single frequent flyer program and hope that someday you’ll be able to link them all together for a free ticket to Tahiti. The same goes for hotel rewards programs, and if anything it’s even more true with hotels. While competing airlines are connected by “airline alliances,” hotel rewards programs typically only give points for stays within that hotel family.
In either case, whether you’re talking about air travel or hotel stays, if you’re looking into signing up to earn miles or points it’s best to do a little research ahead of time to make sure you’re signing up for the programs that will get you to free travel faster. To get you started, here are a couple of articles on the BootsnAll Business Travel Guide – one on the best frequent flyer programs, and another on the best hotel rewards programs. These provide an overview of the biggest rewards programs, plus links to more information about each one, so you can continue your research from there.
photo by Robert S. Donovan
I have always been a bit of a procrastinator. Much to my mother’s dismay, I always wait until the last minute to do a lot of things—like pack my bags (she’s always packed at least a week in advance), plan my next trip, write that term paper or do my taxes. While my strategy of waiting until the last minute to do things usually induces a little more stress than necessary, it has never actually bitten me in the ass too bad. Even when it comes to travel, I’m usually pretty good at scoring a great 
It is certainly no secret that with the economy down, airlines and hotels have been hurting. Special promotions, great travel deals and coupon codes have made travel deals a plenty lately. This tough economic climate has also made Priceline THE place to score some really amazing deals on hotels. Since hotels are often left with a ton of empty rooms right now (which are then auctioned off at low prices on Priceline), you can score some really amazing deals on nice hotels by biding on them on Priceline right now. Since booking a room for a way discounted price is better than leaving it empty, even 4 and 5 star hotels have been auctioning off rooms at stunningly low prices. 
Hawaii used to be a luxury destination—not only was it expensive to get to, but the islands were mostly full of spendy resorts that could cost you an arm and a leg once you get there. Enter the recession. With far fewer people traveling at all this summer, nonetheless to destinations like Hawaii, planes and hotel rooms have been left partly empty, which has in turn driven prices way down. As a result of the suffering economy, airlines, hotels, travel agents, just about everyone is offering up some pretty fantastic Hawaii deals. I’ve even seen some prices so low I’ve taken a double take at the computer screen, unable to believe how cheap it is to go to paradise right now.
One of the things I like about United Vacations is that they always have competitive prices, but they also put a list of their most special deals right on the front page of their site: 
I can’t really point this phenomenon out during the rest of the year, but the truth is that during the next couple months you can probably fly to one of these posh all-inclusive resorts and stay there cheaper than staying home: 
It could be that this is because we are entering that fringe travel season where everyone has booked their summer trip, and no one is thinking about a fall or winter trip yet, but prices are quite good on these packages right now: 
Since travel this year is down a bit, these travel companies are having to offer extra promotions in order to keep their businesses rolling, and United Vacations is no exception: 
Here’s the thing. These really nice all-inclusive resorts in tropical areas tend to be packed and really expensive from December through April, but this time of year they are cheap, especially if you book at the last minute: 
Do you remember that whole “Name Your Own Price” thing that Priceline started out with? Yeah, they have kind of deemphasized that in the last few years, but it’s still around and here’s an incredible offer: