Budget Travel - Travel at real low costs

I am in-charge of the travel desk in my organization. I have been asked to slash travel costs as a cost cutting measure owing to the recession. I have to book tickets to various destinations for our executives who have to travel a lot. Sometimes we end up paying very high air fares even for short distances. I need help from a travel search tool so that I can cut down the budget of my company.

"Real low costs" to me means taking the bus or even hitchhiking... don't think your executives will be too keen on that. :) (Though for very short distances you should not rule out surface transport...)

Kayak.com is generally the first place to look when trying to find a flight for as cheap as possible. It will give you comparisons of prices from almost all major airlines, and at least 80% it finds the cheapest ticket I can find. However, some low cost carriers do not have their fares on kayak; to search these the best site is usually skyscanner.net. Dohop.com, mobissimo.com, and matrix.itasoftware.com are all similar websites, but generally not as good as kayak and skyscanner in my experience.

This forum might be able to provide better advice if you could tell us where you are, the sorts of destinations you are dealing with, how far in advance you are able to book, etc.

I have to book tickets to various destinations for our executives who have to travel a lot. Sometimes we end up paying very high air fares even for short distances.

Do you have a negotiated discount with any airlines? That may be something you might want to look at depending how many tickets you book.

Also, in the case of AA, they sell an airpass which may be cheaper for last minute travel than buying individual tickets.
http://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_US/businessPrograms/prepaidTravel/prepaidTravel.jsp

Its best to use the pros in an instance like this. I would contact AMEX or some other large travel agent company and see what they offer.

MisterNice

http://www.greyhound.com $99 fares from coast to coast ;-) The catch is, Greyhound buses don't have wings and go at the speed limit.

http://www.greyhound.com $99 fares from coast to coast ;-) The catch is, Greyhound buses don't have wings and go at the speed limit.

I think saying traveling at the speed limit is generous. Averaged out across the whole trip you'd be lucky to get 75% of the speed limit

I am in-charge of the travel desk in my organization. I have been asked to slash travel costs as a cost cutting measure owing to the recession. I have to book tickets to various destinations for our executives who have to travel a lot. Sometimes we end up paying very high air fares even for short distances. I need help from a travel search tool so that I can cut down the budget of my company.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Can you give us some more details so that we can help you? Where are you based and what routes do you typically fly?

peace,
~Ben~

Here's perhaps a slightly unorthodox idea: Let individual travelers try to beat the deal the in-house or contracted travel agency says they've got. Sometimes deals will be available to individuals that can't be applied practically across the board with a one-size-fits-all policy. So the corporate policy ends up being some abomination like Wal-Mart's.

I remember booking CO on a company where I used to work even though DL had a non-stop. I brought in an Entertainment coupon from my own book to help them cut the cost (my idea, not theirs). It beat the DL price, so I didn't get flagged. But the company couldn't make something like that a policy or systematically clip hundreds of coupons to save money for everyone.

Subsidizing a weekend away to get a lower fare with a Saturday stay sometimes works with some employees. Hotwire prices can be checked without committing, and I've wondered sometimes how a business might try to get benefit from Priceline. Those sites might have some use for cases where it's just one or two people traveling and it's last-minute.

I'll typically beat corporate rates right and left as an individual, and especially a leisure traveler. But many of not most of the tools used aren't available on a one-size-fits-all basis, so companies instead will impose the few blunt ones that are (like requiring doubling-up on rooms). Having situations where individuals could voluntarily hunt for deals to beat the costs could unleash some creativity.

Mod hat OFF.

While this is actually turning into an interesting discussion (yes, I've saved the company I used to work for lots of money when they allowed me to book my own travel), OP still only has ONE post to his/her credit.

Probably got marching orders to search the net to find ways to save money, and then went through the motions :rolleyes:

Sure, let's keep the discussion going, just be aware that OP (ONE hit wonder) will NOT be answering any questions you guys may have @:-)

EmailKid (again, NOT in mod mode)

http://arm.64hosts.com/ get that program....there was a post about it... its a great tool to help you find out what airlines service what routes...

once you find all the airlines that offer service at a desired desitation you can begin to look them up...this way is better cause you can find out about flights that may not be listed at expedia or orbitz... you may even find a niche airline that serves the areas you need for a better price... like http://www.greatlakesav.com/ or http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/home.do or even this http://www.suncountry.com/reservations/routemap.shtml i have never heard of them....but they seem to have allot of routes to various us destinations from less conventional hubs...even hooters had there own airline for a little while!!!

in my area we have porter http://www.flyporter.com/ ...porter is basically a regional airline based in toronto... yukon has there own airline http://www.flyairnorth.com/

obscure less known about airlines have great deals sometimes...and some have better loyalty programs than mainstream airlines...some of these airlines might wind up being the next southwest or jetblue. they save money by cutting out the travel agent, that is the same thing that keeps them from getting discovered quickly...

try the software....it will help you discover new routes and weird airlines..

While this is actually turning into an interesting discussion (yes, I've saved the company I used to work for lots of money when they allowed me to book my own travel), OP still only has ONE post to his/her credit.

Probably got marching orders to search the net to find ways to save money, and then went through the motions :rolleyes:

Sure, let's keep the discussion going, just be aware that OP (ONE hit wonder) will NOT be answering any questions you guys may have @:-)

This feels like the first post in a tag-team spam, where another new poster will eventually reply and tout a specific site... this exact post has appeared on other travel forums under a wide variety of user names and often there's an identical response promoting a certain site. Just an FYI.

That said, the ensuing discussion has been interesting and may be helpful to some people here.

That said, the ensuing discussion has been interesting and may be helpful to some people here.

I could have sworn I said that ;)


While this is actually turning into an interesting discussion ...

EmailKid

I could have sworn I said that ;)


You did; I'm just agreeing with you. :)