5 destinations where it could pay to combine airfares and hotel costs
Cancun and Riviera Maya
Flight and hotel packages are commonly offered by online travel agencies such as Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz. They don't always represent the best value. As with all-inclusive hotel rates, you should always price flights and hotels separately, and then look at the bundled travel offers.
These packages are available to a wide array of destinations. Although only five are listed here, you can expect any popular tourist destination to be connected to flight and hotel package offerings.
One such area is Cancun and the Riviera Maya in Mexico.
Here's one example: Southwest Vacations offered a five-day flight+hotel vacation package with non-stop service from Chicago Midway to Cancun and a stay at the four-star Iberostar resort for $3,108 USD for two travelers. Priced separately, the same flights to Cancun on the same days and a booking at the Iberostar for five days came to $3,942. The flight and hotel package would save $834 per couple.
This is a single example at one point in time. You might do the same comparison and get very different results. But these savings opportunities turn up regularly with Cancun/Riviera Maya itineraries. It's worth considering here, and in some other popular destinations.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is another example of a highly popular destination for which you can arrange attractive flight and hotel packages.
Travelocity offered a fight and hotel package from Seattle to Las Vegas via Alaska Air and the Luxor Hotel and Casino. The cost per person for four nights and the round-trip flight was $404 (not including a $28/day resort fee). The cheapest Alaska Air flight that shows up in Travelocity's search for the same dates was $578.
The best overall fare in their search was $473, still quite a bit more than the combined cost in their Luxor offer.
Online travel agencies love to bundle travel products. It guarantees that they'll get more of your business. But always check for better fares on competitors, and don't let the package deal put you in a hotel or resort that you wouldn't choose apart from the offer.
Caribbean Islands
If you own a large resort on a popular Caribbean island, you are heavily dependent on air travel connections. If airfares should rise relative to competing islands, you might wind up with a lot of empty rooms.
So it makes sense for resorts to partner with airlines on flight and hotel packages. If necessary, they can heavily discount the hotel portion of the offer and keep prices competitive in times when airfares might not be favorable.
In this part of the world, you'll find discounters such as CheapCaribbean.com that seem to run a perpetual "65% off sale." But if you look more closely, you'll see that the resorts and islands featured in these deals change fairly regularly. You'll also notice that all of these offers are bundled with airfares.
In popular destinations such as Barbados, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, it definitely pays to check on flight and hotel packages as you search for the best deal.
We all know that Orlando is among the world's most popular vacation destinations. You'll find scores of offers to bundle airfare, resort stays and attraction tickets. In fact, you'll have to be quite deliberate in searching out individual quotes on those items. Many people book packages, and some of them save money.
The cost of a basic daily admission to Disney is now beyond $100/person. If you're interested in staying on the Disney property, it makes good sense to bundle your hotel stay with daily passes.
But be certain the airfare portion of the equation saves you money as well.
Southwest Vacations and Walt Disney World offered at the time of this writing a five-day package that included airfare (from Chicago) and accommodations at Disney's Bay Lake Tower at Contemporary Resort for just less than $2,000/person. That works out to almost $400/day for travel and hotel. But substantial savings are possible by switching to a lower-priced hotel.
Hotels off the property are generally less expensive (and less convenient), but if you're looking at bottom-line prices, these Disney hotel packages might not always prove to be money-savers.
If you're traveling from a large airport to Orlando, you can expect some good fares based on volume. Factor those low fares into your bundling decision.
But always check the flight and hotel package offers, because they can be quite attractive in some situations and at certain times of the year.
Turkey features some of the best ancient historical sites on earth. Food and lodging in Turkey are often relatively inexpensive. But getting to Turkey from North America can be quite expensive.
Perhaps this is why flight and hotel packages are often combined with tours of these wonderful ancient treasures.
Consider a flight from Chicago to Istanbul, plus five nights in the Hilton Garden Inn, taxes and fees included.
At the time of this writing, Expedia offered this flight and hotel combination for $1,038 USD/person. Booking that same hotel and flight separately on the same site was $1,347, an added expense of $309.
Again -- for emphasis -- this one example doesn't necessarily represent what you will find. The hotel component of a Turkey vacation is usually quite low. You might be able to book a bargain flight and hotel at a lower price.
Shop both kinds of offers before planning your trip to Turkey.
Flight and hotel packages are commonly offered by online travel agencies such as Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz. They don't always represent the best value. As with all-inclusive hotel rates, you should always price flights and hotels separately, and then look at the bundled travel offers.
These packages are available to a wide array of destinations. Although only five are listed here, you can expect any popular tourist destination to be connected to flight and hotel package offerings.
One such area is Cancun and the Riviera Maya in Mexico.
Here's one example: Southwest Vacations offered a five-day flight+hotel vacation package with non-stop service from Chicago Midway to Cancun and a stay at the four-star Iberostar resort for $3,108 USD for two travelers. Priced separately, the same flights to Cancun on the same days and a booking at the Iberostar for five days came to $3,942. The flight and hotel package would save $834 per couple.
This is a single example at one point in time. You might do the same comparison and get very different results. But these savings opportunities turn up regularly with Cancun/Riviera Maya itineraries. It's worth considering here, and in some other popular destinations.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas is another example of a highly popular destination for which you can arrange attractive flight and hotel packages.
Travelocity offered a fight and hotel package from Seattle to Las Vegas via Alaska Air and the Luxor Hotel and Casino. The cost per person for four nights and the round-trip flight was $404 (not including a $28/day resort fee). The cheapest Alaska Air flight that shows up in Travelocity's search for the same dates was $578.
The best overall fare in their search was $473, still quite a bit more than the combined cost in their Luxor offer.
Online travel agencies love to bundle travel products. It guarantees that they'll get more of your business. But always check for better fares on competitors, and don't let the package deal put you in a hotel or resort that you wouldn't choose apart from the offer.
Caribbean Islands
If you own a large resort on a popular Caribbean island, you are heavily dependent on air travel connections. If airfares should rise relative to competing islands, you might wind up with a lot of empty rooms.
So it makes sense for resorts to partner with airlines on flight and hotel packages. If necessary, they can heavily discount the hotel portion of the offer and keep prices competitive in times when airfares might not be favorable.
In this part of the world, you'll find discounters such as CheapCaribbean.com that seem to run a perpetual "65% off sale." But if you look more closely, you'll see that the resorts and islands featured in these deals change fairly regularly. You'll also notice that all of these offers are bundled with airfares.
In popular destinations such as Barbados, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, it definitely pays to check on flight and hotel packages as you search for the best deal.
We all know that Orlando is among the world's most popular vacation destinations. You'll find scores of offers to bundle airfare, resort stays and attraction tickets. In fact, you'll have to be quite deliberate in searching out individual quotes on those items. Many people book packages, and some of them save money.
The cost of a basic daily admission to Disney is now beyond $100/person. If you're interested in staying on the Disney property, it makes good sense to bundle your hotel stay with daily passes.
But be certain the airfare portion of the equation saves you money as well.
Southwest Vacations and Walt Disney World offered at the time of this writing a five-day package that included airfare (from Chicago) and accommodations at Disney's Bay Lake Tower at Contemporary Resort for just less than $2,000/person. That works out to almost $400/day for travel and hotel. But substantial savings are possible by switching to a lower-priced hotel.
Hotels off the property are generally less expensive (and less convenient), but if you're looking at bottom-line prices, these Disney hotel packages might not always prove to be money-savers.
If you're traveling from a large airport to Orlando, you can expect some good fares based on volume. Factor those low fares into your bundling decision.
But always check the flight and hotel package offers, because they can be quite attractive in some situations and at certain times of the year.
Turkey features some of the best ancient historical sites on earth. Food and lodging in Turkey are often relatively inexpensive. But getting to Turkey from North America can be quite expensive.
Perhaps this is why flight and hotel packages are often combined with tours of these wonderful ancient treasures.
Consider a flight from Chicago to Istanbul, plus five nights in the Hilton Garden Inn, taxes and fees included.
At the time of this writing, Expedia offered this flight and hotel combination for $1,038 USD/person. Booking that same hotel and flight separately on the same site was $1,347, an added expense of $309.
Again -- for emphasis -- this one example doesn't necessarily represent what you will find. The hotel component of a Turkey vacation is usually quite low. You might be able to book a bargain flight and hotel at a lower price.
Shop both kinds of offers before planning your trip to Turkey.
