What's your best travel "deal" ever?

Wanted to fly from Philly to Germany. Prices for round trip flights were running about $1000 apiece. Asked Kayak.Com to check flights from NYC airports. Found that Singapore Airlines were charging $600 a ticket to fly between JFK to Frankfort (the same airplane was then going on to Singapore). I then found I could rent a car between PHL and JFK for about $100 each way (that includes taxes, tolls, CDW, and gas). Service and amenities on Singapore Airlines are higher than just about any other company we've flown on, so I paid for beer and got champagne.

It took a couple hours of searching on Kayak to get this. But that means I was getting paid about $300 an hour to surf for bargains.

Home exchange is the best deal ever, if you can make it work for you. Free lodging, car, and pet sitter!

Many years ago - when there was a TWA and I flew constantly on businees they had an incredible m ilege deal.

For only 50,000 miles (and I was racking up at least 100K per year) you could get a free First Class ticket to Europe - and you companion paid the cheapest fare (then about $500-$600) and also got a First Class seat.

And - they always had seats available. As long as I called at least 3 months in advance I could get whatever dates/cities I wanted. Granted they didn;t have sleeper beds then - but they did have 7 course dinners - and a bar in the upstairs of the 747s.

Went to europe at least 11/12 times on this deal.

My best bargain was a really cheap fare to London posted here by Rex. My daughter and I jumped on it (but not before it went up just slightly), and had a great spur-of-the-moment trip. Fodorites rule!

A Priceline deal, $120 a night for a room at the Waldorf Hilton in London.

Buddy pass from JFK to CDG, round trip business class for under $450.

I'm now spoiled...

A week at the Manhattan Club timeshare found on eBay. It was a steal.

We flew back and forth from Ohio to Florida on
Southwest for $25.00 when they were celebrating their 25th anniversary.

DS was living in a very popular tourist area. We called it "mooching off the kid". Free room and board! We also decided renting a car for 3 weeks was too expensive so DH gave him $500 towards the purchase of an ancient but reliable little car. On Father's Day DS took DH on a jeep trip with his club up the side of a mountain. Best Father's Day ever. If you don't count the 18+ year investment, it was free!

Flying courier to Europe!

Before 9/11 issues

Use to be FREE both ways. You gave up about 1 full day for travel going over, but got a free hotel for the night and a free return tix at whatever date you had pre-selected.

Used it a few times when I was younger when I had more time than money!!

A rental car for 12 days in Italy for $250.00 through Budget, I kept telling them the rate was wrong, but they kept quoting it to me (at that time, 140,000 lira if my memory serves.

Hubby and I flew to Paris ten years ago for around $700 for the both of us. It was Buy One/Get One Free deal on Northwest that we found out about through my employer's travel agent. That was a great trip. I've also flown Tennessee-SNA on a Priceline ticket - I bid $100 and I was shocked that it was accepted. Those are probably the best two deals I've gotten.

Oh for the old days when you could buy cheap coach tickets to Europe on NWA, upgrade to first for minimal miles and still get credit toward elite status for miles flown based upon your purchase of the coach ticket. Certainly a win, win, win for flyers. never again. Alas.

Five months after 9/11 we got an airfare/hotel package through American Airlines. The price was $399 pp for airfare plus 5 nights hotel and a Thames river cruise. It was our first trip abroad and we've been traveling since!

I have gotten several good airfare deals. $350 roundtrip Chicago to Dublin/Shannon to Chicago for February 07, and $325 roundtrip St. Louis to Paris.

Tracy

Trip package to Ireland a few years ago: saw it in an ad in the Sunday travel secion of our newspaper. Round trip NY to Shannon/Dublin, 7 nights in Bed and Breakfasts around the country, and a rental car for a week, for $399 each. We upgraded to one night in a Castle (Dromoland) and changed at our expense to a hotel in Dublin (Merion) and had a fabulous week.

1970, one week at Easter to Malaga/Torrelmolinos, Spain. Included charter airfare from Columbus, Ohio, a deluxe Melia Hotel room on the sea, two meals a day, and a couple of sidetrips including Sevilla on Good Friday and Ronda and Granada.

Total price -- $199 per person.
It was through the Ohio Education Association.

The following year at Christmas, they did a similar one for a week to Lucerne, Switzerland but several of our "group" boycotted it because they raised the price to an outrageous $249. We went, however.

$412 RT Boston to Honolulu just a couple of years ago.

A couple of years ago there was noted an unbelievable deal on Flyertalk.com. Alitalia had somehow offered a round trip fare of $33 (something like $100 all in)for a business class seat Toronto - Cyprus with stopovers in either Rome or Milan. Many flyertalkers took advantage of the offer and although Alitalia tried to get out of the deal most passengers prevailed. Still trying to figure our why I didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

9 years ago in November, Boston to Paris round trip with 4 nights hotel (at a Holiday Inn), transfers and a city tour. $295 each ..... our logic back then was that we'd spend that much in a Home Depot on a weekend....so what a deal this was!

$99 each way SF to Brussels and back in late November 1984 on one of People's Express' inaugural runs to Europe. The 747(?) was so packed it had a hard time lifting off the runway at SFO; even the FAs were wide-eyed.

A friend and I took the train down to Paris for a week and had a great time shopping and dining and sightseeing and just being there.

I think Betsy has me beat!

DH & I lived in Wash DC 1990s DH came home and said "Boss sending me to Luxemberg & London next week. Want to come?"
I got a $99.00 RT companion ticket on US Airways as a FF and we got some crazy rental car promotion with a brand new car for the total of $39.00 US for 12 days.
We stayed a Soffitel (sp) Hotels had suites & drove all over Germany, Luxemberg Brussels and paid an astonishing $50.0 to fly to London leaving the practically free rental car in Luxemborg.
Never got another offer like that one ..but boy do I have memories!!!!

$580 to Hawaii from Colorado, including round trip airfare, ground transportation (guided tour) and eight nights lodging on two islands.

It was a long time ago, but that trip planted the seed and I've been traveling ever since.

DRJ I remember that deal because I booked a flight to Cyprus. I think it was through expedia or another similar website. They sent an email saying that my ticket wasn't valid and for some crazy reason I just let it go, although in my haste to take advantage of the office I had booked horrible flights and would have only been in Cyprus for a total of 3 or 4 days.

Tracy

Sorry...I'm at the office and must be really excited because I got it confused with "offer"!

$99 each way from San Francisco to London non-stop on British Air! This was when the war broke out in Iraq about five years ago. With taxes $276 each! A bargain!

Got two roundtrip tickets for $99/each from Orlando to Albany, NY for a weekend in Vermont. Got bumped on the way back (voluntarily) and received two free roundtrip tickets which we later used to go from Orlando to Seattle. Got bumped (voluntarily) on that trip and got two more free tickets which we later used to go to Colorado. THREE trips for $99!

Just this week, I re-checked airfare I already have booked on Southwest in March from IND-MCO ~ the prices are down so, I re-booked & received over $500 credit!

I continued looking around on SWA and found airfare from IND-Denver in June for $49 there Wed and $99 back on Sunday, so I booked a trip to CO with almost free airfare for four of us!

WOO HOO!!

Our best family deal was flying from Atlanta to Salt Lake, 4 pple for $110 p.p. We were "bumped" several times that year and the next and ended up with 16 flights for $440.

Savannah, November 2008:

Hertz 2009 Mustang GT car with satellite radio and GPS for a week - $129.

I got down to the $129 (from $164) for a compact car with combined discounts from Hertz and AAA, which I thought was great in the first place, but then we got upgraded at the counter free of charge. It sometimes pays to joke with the people across the counter, I guess.

2001 - Was able to take my kids to Hawaii on a deal of 6 days, rental car, hotel & airfare (LAX) for $500/person.

At the risk of nasty comments, I will say that I rarely pay for travel.
Hotels usually comp my stay and I travel enough for business that I earn a bazillion miles a year on AA.
AND, up until recently, I had full employee benefits on AA (for the last 15 years).
I travel like a travel agent, taking advantage of industry deals.
BUT, I have never taken a vacation that lasts longer than 6 days and I typically have to work 'a little' while on vacation.
I find it a worthwhile trade off.
I typically fly first class and stay in 4 and 5 star hotels.
My last 5 day mini-vacation I talked them into including meals and parking (at a really great resort, no less!).
Don't hate.
I probably make much less than you because I am in the travel industry!

Oh... and being a retired military family, we can also take advantage of all sorts of travel benefits.
Every trip is a great 'deal'!

1) same as cmcfong - ~$120 for a huge corner room at the Waldorf Hilton in London, booked via Priceline. This was 3.5 years ago

2) op-up to Business class on Cathay Pacific, flying Hong Kong to LAX on my coach ticket

Current deal which I haven't cashed in yet:
FREE weekend day from Hertz. I tried a dummy booking, and I can rent a car for 1 day for $2.75. Yes, not a typo. It's FREE and you just pay the tax. One redemption per month from now thru March 2009.

Best travel deal was in '96 when Southwest offered travel on 4th of July for $17.76 each way. The sale started at 5pm and I read it in the paper just minutes before. I called and sat on hold for about 10 minutes before an agent came on. I asked him to name off places we could fly from Kansas city (we didn't have internet then) and one of the places was San Francisco - we had never been there so we booked a flight out of KC first thing in the morning and leaving San Fran at 11:57pm.

It was a great trip! We rented a convertible, drove up the coast a bit, then back to the city for dinner. Watched the fireworks over the bay, headed back to the airport and were home less than 24 hours after we started!

I bought a ticket with miles and then gave up my seat so I got another free ticket. On that flight I did the same. I flew 5 round trips courtesy of the first ticket.

A few years ago, when Renaissance Cruise Line was still in business, they were offering a 9 night Mediterranean cruise with airfare from New York for $1199 a person for an inside cabin. This included two nights at a hotel in Athens at the beginning and two nights in Istanbul at the end. After we booked, they emailed us and offered us an upgrade if we were willing to change our dates.

We changed, no problem and got 11 nights, a balcony room, $100 each credit voucher on the ship and got upgraded to three nights at the Intercontinental Hotels in Athens and Istanbul. All for $1199 a person including airfare from New York to Athens.

If we had kept our original dates we would have been in Istanbul on the day of the big earthquake there, when people were evacuated from their hotels and sleeping on the grass. Whew!

2 months after 9/11 we flew Syracuse NY to HNL for 299.99 RT per person on American Airlines. It was by far the most subdued flight I had ever taken.

Hi Jones5, http://gmason.cruiseone.com/travel/cruises/group_request.do is a great site to check out for adventure, romance and excursions from the ship to fabulous and memorable places. I guarantee that you will have not only the time of your life but also will bring back memories to last you forever.

$199 R/T CLT to CDG. Back when they had great E-Savers, for 5 nights

$40/nt Kaluakoi 2 br villa for a month(early 1990s) perfect because I was moving a needed a place to live & a vacation

$99 RT Air MSP-LAX many times from MLT vacations until 2001 changed that

Kern River B&B(without breakfast) $15/nt