Frodosan

Just looking for a little help in understanding a pricing issue that came up when I was pricing a round-trip ticket from DFW to HSV for the weekend of 1/28-29. Direct flights on AA came out around $700 but both websites offered the exact same flights (as were offered at the higher price for flights alone) plus a night in a hotel at an alternative pricing of about $340. Why and/or how the heck is it showing a $350 savings just by adding a hotel???

BLI-Flyer

Well if I found that I'd go for the package deal and burn the hotel certificate.

GUWonder

I do it often -- especially for last minute trips.

stut

Same here. I often use lastminute as well - there's some fantastic deals where hotel+Eurostar in 1st is less than Eurostar alone in Standard!

It's far from universally the case for these deals, but always a trick worth looking out for. I suspect it comes down to the negotiating skills of the travel agent in question in getting consolidator rates on airlines and hotels (with a few loss leaders thrown in for good measure...)

swag

I've used these deals, from both Travelocity & Expedia, many times. Sometimes I use the package hotel, sometimes not.

A colleague once had a glitch making one of these bookings, so he phoned them to complete it. He asked how they could sell it so cheap, and the rep said it was because they "bought so many seats in bulk in advance". Well, it's not that simple, since that doesn't explain the times that I can get the deal on the noon departure but not on the 10 am.

The pattern I've noticed are that the big savings seem to come when the minimum purchase time for the fare has passed, but there were seats available in the cheap buckets otherwise. And the fares that result (guessing on a breakout for the hotel cost) seem comparable to the now-gone 14/21 day advance fares. In other words, I think when they sell a package, they can bypass the advance purchase restrictions for the seats in the cheap buckets.

And not that you asked, but someone always does: It'll vary by airline and hotel, but I've always gotten miles for the flights (AA & DL), but never found a hotel program that would give credit for the stay.

GUWonder

Thanks for sharing that since it does inevitably come up on FT routinely.

As swag has shared: with airlines the miles generally seem to show up. With hotels, generally not. [But Hyatt used to -- PAST TENSE -- give credit and Hilton on occassion did and still does. I just don't count on it in the case of hotels.]

shl1108

That is excellent savings...go for it.
I know lots of Vegas package deals do it so you come to gamble at their hotels...you can almost stay free at some hotels.