Forget discount airlines. Your best bet may be a company that sells tour packages.
Americans are traveling in record numbers this summer. The Travel Industry Association of America estimates Americans are taking a record 328 million trips, up 2.3 percent from 2004, and the strong demand is allowing airlines to raise fares.
In fact, the four biggest U.S. airlines - American, United, Delta and Northwest - raised most airfares last week.
But even as airfares rise, the price of packages has remained relatively low. As a result, in some cases, it’s less expensive to buy a package that includes airfare and hotel than to buy airfare alone.
“It’s still quite a hidden phenomenon,” says Robert Albert, general manager of Site59.com, which specializes in last-minute packages and is offering dozens of air/hotel deals for July travel that are less expensive than the current price for air alone. Consider these:
As of last Monday, the site was listing three-night getaways to Los Angeles from Denver, including airfare and hotel, for $337 a person. The price of airfare alone from online agencies such as Travelocity.com for identical dates was $388.
More: azcentral.com
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Every time a passenger buys a plane ticket from a travel agent, the transaction traverses a labyrinth the consumer never sees--one that adds $12 to $13 to the price.
Agents may seem like they're linked with airlines, but, in fact, they have used giant global reservation and ticket-distribution systems for decades. Online bargain-finding reservation systems like Orbitz and Expedia book through the mainframes too.
But now several high-tech newcomers promise to modernize the system, promoting sophisticated software and a new way of approaching the business that will reduce costs and allow airlines to potentially save millions of dollars each year.
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