Okay, I consider myself a pretty savvy FT'er, but this was a new one, at least for me.
Had to fly DFW-SLC on short notice. Without a 14 day advance, nonstops (both AA & DL) were running $1023 RT on Orbitz & the airline websites. Unfortunately, with 1-stops on Frontier and Amer. West running about $400, that expense report would not get thru accounting.
Knowing that occasionally Expedia & Travelocity beat the airline websites, I decided to check them out. Unfortunately, with the short notice, the process were about the same. Then, on Travelocity, I noticed this:
Flights + 4 Nights Hotel
Save with TotalTrip SM
from $442
Well, hmmm....
So I go to check this out, choose that option, and sort by price. Sure enough, there's the beautiful Days Inn SLC South with a total trip price of $442. And
there's also a modify flights link, that lets me change to the AA nonstops of my choice at the same price.
I'm pretty sure you could just no-show at the hotel with no penalty (as I read the fine print, at least), or play it safe and just check in to the hotel, then sleep at your usual hotel of choice. As it turns out, Expedia has the same sorts of deals, including one of my preferred hotels at a comparable cost to Frontier flights plus the client hotel rate. So I booked that, so I won't have to explain to accounting why I'm expensing two hotels.
Only downside I see is a lack of refundability/changability for both hotel & flight, but that's less of a concern on short-notice trips. But for a $600 / 60% off, that's a decent tradeoff, IMO. That's comparable to a Priceline deal, but completely non-opaque, plus I may even get miles (can't tell the fare basis, but I'll update after flying whether anything posts).
Anyone else seen deals like this in the past?
