With just 85 days until we head to Australia, I'm finalizing alot of hotel reservations and the like. I've got one night left to book, being the night the cruise ship arrives back in Sydney before we depart for home. I've thrown a bid in on http://www.priceline.com/ but was unsuccessful. Of course, I bid so low that I swear I can hear William Shatner laughing while I await the word back to "try again". Do I try again, or just keep hoping for a sale offered by one of the hotel lines? I know for our last trip down under a few years back, I happened upon a fabulous sale which gave us our hotel in Darlings Harbour (an area of Sydney) for approx. $65/night. This was unheard of....the fact that we were staying there over Christmas may have been a factor. I did use http://www.hotwire.com/ to book 2 nights before the cruise, and although not THRILLED with the hotel we got, I'm fairly certain we will end up being satisfied with it. For those of you unfamiliar, hotwire requires you book a hotel blindly, based on star rating and area. The only thing I have to say about that is....one man's trash is another man's treasure...in other words, the star ratings vary so much depending upon who is designating it. I've found the same hotel on http://www.expedia.ca/ may have a different rating than, say, http://www.travelocity.ca/ or the hotel chain itself. It really is a crap shoot. Oh well, I've got the time to play around with priceline...so I'll give it another go...you know how I always LOVE a deal...and there's no doubt you can get something cheaper through them than you can direct with the hotel.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: Air Canada has a seat sale on to thank customers for their patience during the recent strike action. So...if you're looking to fly somewhere within Canada or the US before December 9th, 2011....then this sale is for you. However, it must be booked before June 19th, 2011. Just type THANKYOU in the space for promotion code.
And while I'm on a travel theme today, I'll outline the value of http://www.seatguru.com/. Because of the extremely good price we got for our airfare to Sydney, we treated ourselves to paying for premium seats. It's not a bad deal really, especially if you're on a multi-leg journey like ours is. You pay one fee based on the length of your journey...in our case on this trip $100/direction (when we do it for Las Vegas, it is generally less expensive) and you get to pick premium seats for each leg all for that one fee. Now on these big planes with multiple choices for premium seats, which are the best to pick? That's where seatguru comes in handy. You enter the type of plane you are flying on and it tells you which to avoid, which are good, which aren't worth the extra money, and even whether there is some free seats that are just as good. I use it often...especially when it's a type of plane that I'm unfamiliar with. And of course, don't forget the option to do 24 hour in advance on-line check in....I know with Air Canada they open up even their premium seats within that period on a first come/first served basis...this lets all you people with the same infliction that I have (frontus of the planus syndrome) to improve your "position in life"...even if it is only for the duration of the flight!!
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