Forget discount sites. Go to the source!
October 27th, 2005 | by mbhunter |This article on MSN.com is great:
I was impressed with this article. Chock full of ideas, some of which you may know. I didn’t know a bunch of them. Some ones that caught my eye:
- Airline tickets can be cheaper at the airlines’ websites than on aggregator sites.
- Call the front desk of your hotel for some good rates, upgrades, etc.
- Computer shoppers should check out the manufacturer, especially if they want performance machines. (I suspected this was true of Dell.com — my suspicions were confirmed in the article.)
To this list I might add art. We saw some art glass by Josh Simpson that we thought was really cool-looking and had great color. The prices on his website were quite a bit better than in the store.
The last sentence offers a warning which is very true:
“No discount strategy works all the time, but the go-to-the-source path can help you out.”
The “best price” is a moving target. But even the best price sometimes goes close to home just to throw you off!
4 Responses to “Forget discount sites. Go to the source!”
By jim on Oct 28, 2005 | Reply
Hey MBH,
Could you post on your site that I’m accepting submissions for next week’s Carnival?
http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/hosting-carnival-of-debt-reduction-7.html
Thanks buddy,
jim
By jim on Oct 28, 2005 | Reply
Oh, and airline tickets are always $5 cheaper at the airline’s site compared to Expedia/Travelocity/Hotwire/etc because that’s the commission they make.
And the aggregators don’t get AirTran or Southwest flights.
By Traveler on Oct 28, 2005 | Reply
The aggregators are good for finding what the cheapest flight options are before visiting the airline’s website. Independence Air (flyi.com) is another airline that isn’t on the big travel discount sites.
For those in the DC area, washingtonpost.com offers a daily airfare update under its travel section listing the cheapest airline flights to major US cities from DC airports. I recommend it highly before going to the airline websites.
By mbhunter on Oct 29, 2005 | Reply
Traveler, thanks for the tips and for your consistent, insightful comments! Always appreciated!