Spur of the Moment Trip

Everyone knows that last minute travel can be very expensive.  I had a work trip come up unexpectedly this week.  I’m actually writing this from the Salt Lake airport.  I knew I would have to work hard to get a reasonable price for the airfare. Let me explain to you my methods of the madness.

1. I first went to Kayak’s website and did a simple search.  This helped me to search Delta, Continental, United, US Air, and American.  It resulted, well, just as I expected…about $800
2. Once I knew the prices were high there I went to my American Airlines AAdvantage account to see how many miles it would require.  When I saw that I wasn’t going to be eligible for the Super Saver deal and it was going to require 50,000 miles I decided that would be a tough price to pay.
3. My next point of contact was Southwest and JetBlue.  Both of these companies aren’t searched on kayak’s website.  I did a search on JetBlue, but it didn’t result in much as there weren’t any flights for those days.  Southwest came through.  They offered a fare for a reasonable price.  It was $400 for the ticket.  I knew that it would be the best option.  I then did a simple Google search under “Southwest Rapid Rewards Promotion Code.”  It told me that I could get 1000 bonus points for each leg of a round trip ticket.  I entered the code and was surprised to find out that it also included 250 bonus points as well.  I was well pleased to see that a few minutes of research did me great.

I then had to research a hotel and a car rental.  My car rental research told me that the car would cost a minimum of $77 for the two days in the Geo Metro equivalent.  I tried  a few more sites, and found no results.  I turned to Priceline and gave them $20/day as a bid for a better car.  Instantly I was accepted, which would be a great success for most people, but I was frustrated that I might have gotten a better deal had I have bid lower.  Hahahah.  That is a cheap traveler mentality. Keep in mind you can….Save up to 40% on car rentals when you name your price at Priceline.com

The hotel was going to be a Marriott, and I hadn’t joined the Marriott Rewards program.  I found out that if you are referred to a friend you can earn extra points.  I sent a message to a friend and explained that I would like an invitation to join.  I’m still waiting for the response, but I’ll join before I get to the hotel tonight.  You can send me an email at sheldonchristensen@gmail.com and I will invite you join the program for the additional points.

So as you can see I’ve searched for a few extra moments, but it is going to save me lots of money in the end.  Ideally I would have had some Southwest points so I wouldn’t have had to pay for the trip, but I’m still getting into this as well.  When we have their card available I’ll pass it along.  But until then start building your accounts today by signing up for one of our cards for hotels or airfare to start padding your accounts.