Expedia $200 Off Coupon For Vacations of 3+ Days

How about a 3-day vacation, including air and hotel, for under $150? It's available for the asking.

Expedia has teamed up with Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) and various airlines to give customers an instant $200 cash back on select Expedia vacation packages priced $200 (pre-tax) or more.

Check out this sample itinerary above. Flying round-trip Virgin America SFO to Orange County and a three night stay at Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites near Disneyland, for just $129 bucks! Plus, in addition to the frequent flyer points you earn for flying, if you are a member of the ThankYou network (yet another frequent travel program), you earn points for making this purchase through Expedia.

Here are the details (a bit vague) of this offer. Essentially, you need to book at participating IHG properties, such as Holiday Inn's and Crowne Plaza hotels, and select airlines, including U.S. Airways, JetBlue and Virgin America. Travel valid any day of the week through September 30, 2009. Enter promo code 200IHG during checkout.

So have some fun with this promotion. An opportunity for some cheap getaways to Phoenix, Portland, or Vegas, or apply the funds to a larger vacation elsewhere.

Click here to start your search.

Enter to Win a Hawai'i Vacation from Outside Magazine

Register here for a chance to win a five-night vacation in Hawai'i, including round-trip airfare for two to Honolulu, five-night accommodations at the Moana Surfrider (fantastic property!) and surfing lessons from Aloha Beach Services. Entries must be received by April 13, 2009. 

San Francisco to Belfast, England $395 "all in"

10:00 PM (fare subject to change at any time)
(From Flyertalk)
San Francisco to Belfast, England for $395 roundtrip - taxes included on Continental Airlines.
Some segments may be operated by Virgin Atlantic or BMI. Available for Monday-Thursday departures in January and February. Visit expedia.com or continental.com to check for availability.

Orbitz and Expedia Hotel Discount Codes

With already discounted room rates and the coupon codes below, now is a great time to consider purchasing your next hotel stay. Although the terms are pretty straight forward, these discounts will not necessarily apply to all hotels and destinations - particularly if other limited time offers are concurrently running. 

Expedia: $50 off a 3+ night stay. Book by 1/31/09, travel through 3/31/09. Coupon: FAN50

Orbitz: 20% off 1+ night stay. Book by 11/23/08, travel through 1/31/09. Coupon: SAVEBIG20

Expedia 24-Hour Sale: Book By Tonight

Check out Expedia's 24-hour hotel sale, including rock bottom prices at select hotels in Las Vegas. These are some of the cheapest rooms we've seen in a while. 

Many other properties throughout the U.S and world are participating in this sale.

According to the terms, you must book by tonight at 11:59 PM (PDT). Below are some verified prices we found for a 1-night stay, during randomly selected dates in November and December. 

Las Vegas:

Stratopshere: $25/mid-week,  $58/weekends.

Tropicana: $32/midweek, $71/weekends.

Imperial Palace: $33/midweek, $55 weekends.

Monte Carlo: $99/mid-week and weekends

Circus Circus: $32/mid-week, $62 weekends

Treasure Island: $69/mid-week, $129/weekends

New York New York: $70/midweek, $120/weekends

Planet Hollywood: $79/mid-week, $179/weekends

San Francisco: (friends/family coming to town for the Holidays?)

Fairmont: $119/mid-week and weekends

Parc-55:  $107/mid-week, $149/weekends

Clift: $139/mid-week and weekends

Whitcomb: $79/mid-week and weekends

Visit Expedia.com

Earning cash-back & frequent flyer miles for online purchases

"Black Friday" is upon us, and like animals hunting for prey in the wild, shoppers around the country are in rapid chase to find the perfect holiday bargain. But some of the best bargains can be found online, in the safety of your own home.

Many online businesses are offering incentives such as free shipping or coupons for post-Thanksgiving purchases. But, you can even do better: A website called RewardsDB adds icing to the cake by telling you where cash-back or frequent flyer miles can be earned for shopping at certain websites. (And you typically don't earn these bonuses by shopping at the brick & mortar stores).

Websites that you may already use or have considered such as Buy.com and Expedia which sometimes already have great deals, give an extra little commission for shopping with them. It's easy and nearly an automatic process.

Visit the RewardsDB website for more details.

Priceline Eliminates Airline Ticket Booking Fees
This month, Priceline began eliminating airline ticket booking fees on all published domestic and international fares. The change does not apply to Priceline's Name Your Own Price airline ticketing service, which offers already discounted tickets.

There are many pro's and con's to using Priceline and other travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. A con has historically been the added service charge for airline tickets, though often only $5-$15 per ticket. This policy change at Priceline may be a wake up call to the other travel sites to reexamine their fees, while at the same time making such travel sites a more attractive option to consumers.

The Rise & Fall of the 'online booking bonus'

By Mike Grasso

So sad. Delta Airlines has discontinued its online booking bonus of 500 miles.
Airlines which historically have offered online booking bonuses initially did so to lure people to book tickets through their computer, rather than a travel agent or on the phone. Back in the day, many reservations booked online at the airlines website scored you upwards of 1000 added frequent flyer miles.

Since then, airlines have initiated service fees for booking reservations with an agent - ranging from $10-$40 bucks. Some airlines have also trimmed, cut, and slashed travel agent commissions on booking air-only reservations. Finally, online travel sites such as Expedia and Travelocity often charge a service fee, albeit it minimal, for booking air tickets. All of this has worked to the airlines advantage, to the point where online booking bonuses are rarely necessary to get folks to travel with the mouse directly to the airlines website.

Delta joins Northwest in discontinuing online booking bonuses, while United, Continental and U.S Air only offer 500 miles, and American now down to 250 bonus miles.

Emergency Travel - Bereavement Fares

Sorting out flight arrangements is often the least concern when a distant family member has recently died or is imminent. Search engines likes Travelocity and Expedia make it much easier to sort schedules and fares for most of the airlines allowing you to choose what makes the most sense. But, sometimes you need some flexibility.

One option is redeeming frequent flyer miles for an air ticket. They often have more flexibility than a standard purchased ticket, with many airlines allowing you to change dates/times of departure at no fee providing there are still available seats.

A more classic option, Bereavement fares, can also provide customers options such as open return dates - because who knows how long you may need to stay at the destination to work through family matters. This program is usually available to immediate family members including domestic partners. But, not all airlines offer Bereavement fares any longer, so you need to call the airlines directly to find out.

Prices range from 10-75% off the FULL FARE price of a ticket for the same routing. Therefore, Bereavement fares are not always the least expensive - but again, can offer a greater ability to make changes as needed during your travel.

HOT FARE
San Francisco to Las Vegas $108 round-trip TAXES INCLUDED on United Airlines
Valid for travel from August 27th through October. Not valid on Friday or Sunday travel.
Use Expedia or Travelocity "flexible dates" option