Saturday, June 9, 2007

Around The World Fares

Traveling to Oz from the US is expensive and it can cost anywhere from $1100 to over $3000 usd on a major US carrier. However, a little secret known to only a few is that if you purchase an around the world ticket, the cost is cheaper or the same and you get to travel to as many as five countries for the same price. Around the world fares, known as RTW tickets are created by discount consolidators and typically cost only a little more than a standard round trip ticket to Australia. If you have the extra time, even just a few days, these fares can be worth it, especially if you've always dreamed of stopping in China or Thailand for a few days. Another type of ticket available is known as the circle pacific, a type of ticket that goes throughout Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

My favorite site: Air Brokers International, www.airbrokers.com. Beware though, you can't always buy a ticket online, you may have to do it the old-fashioned way and simply call, or make an email request for a specific quote, but the prices here are worth the extra work and really can't be beat.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Traveling to Latin America--cheaply

On average, depending upon what time of year you fly, tickets to Latin America will be costly, ranging from $400 to over $1,000.

But on occasion there are flights like $300 from Miami to Quito, or recently there was a deal of $469 from NYC to LIMA. Last-minute travel deals can get you a good deal too, especially when it comes to flying from Miami to Santiago, Chile or Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Major US carriers that fly to Latin America include Continental, American Airlines and Delta. However, Chilean Airline, LAN is fantastic in its customer service and overall comfort. Although Chile based, they operated several small subsidies of their company and fly all over South America. LAN shares a code share agreement with American Airlines. Continental shares a code share agreement with panama-based Copa Airlines, which is a big player in Central American market. Taca and Lasca are also big Latin airlines, and are affiliated with one another.

If you are headed to Latin America from the US, there are three major departure points: Houston, Miami, and Atlanta.

Sometimes (gotta watch the taxes) its cheaper to get a discount airline, like Southwest or Jetblue to one of the above departure points and get a ticket from Miami to your destination. Sometimes if can be a steal and other times not at all.

Travel Tipper--travel sites to watch for cheap Latin Travel

We're keep'in the mojo with latin travel this week.... So, if you're headed south, or east ro west, check it out!

Ones to Watch:


http://www.allcheapfares.com/

I was a little skeptical at first. Its logo is a car with wings, but I try not to judge a book by its cover (however, in this day and age with the Internet, its becoming harder and harder to follow that) anyhow, when I delve into the site, I realized that this site is able to combine some of the more well-known low-rate airline carrier into their fold, providing an over all good deal to the customer. Take Jetblue for example, no other consolidator site was providing a package with Jetblue, but allcheapfares.com was, which reduced a ticket to Lima, Peru from Boston, Ma to $700, instead of $850 like the other travel sites that sell airline tixs.


http://www.flycheapabroad.com/

The cool thing about flycheapabroad.com is that it specializes in Latin American fares. You have to book it out at least four days ahead, but its prices seem to be a bit cheaper by average of $50-60 a ticket. Considering international taxes can be rough on the wallet, they keep that cost down.

Check it out!

Welcome

Welcome.

Like anything that is closely associated to the web, travel is quickly evolving. There are an array of web 2.0 travel networking sites where you can blog, share photos, meet other travelers, yadda, yadda. New search engines aimed exclusively at travelers are always popping-up. Last minute deal sites are a dime a dozen, but who is helping consumers navigate their way through it all? While guidebooks can be important for the actual journey, no one can really help you swim through the muck on the web, or tell you how it really is on the road. I've seen travel web communities that aim to break that barrier, but the truth is that there is almost too much information out there and reviews tend to be general. That's why I am here.

I'm a news and travel journalist, so I'm trained to uncover the truth. In fact, I trained for six years, spent even more time actually working as a writer. I've lived abroad in Ecuador and budget traveled my way through out most of South America and before that, Europe. I've traveled Mexico & Costa Rica. I've also crossed the USA three times by car, hiking nearly every U.S. National Park in the lower 48.

I've traveled in luxury and on a shoestring. I've traveled with a budget and have also thrown all caution to the wind. I'm a safety girl at heart so it is my nature (which I admit is some times annoying) to weigh every risk and obstacle. However, this trait has never steered me away from scaling a cliff or hitting the rapids.

I am a constant support of travel counsel and planning to friends and family, and at times I've even given free advise to complete strangers while waiting for pad thai. The know-how of travel is my passion. There is so much to know and can be an overwhelming adventure for many, so here I give you my blog, a news portal that informs and updates you on travel options, deals and other entertaining, yet informative bites.

Enjoy!