Last Minute Travel Deals

So you need to get on a plane, reserve a hotel room or rental car at the last minute. Maybe you’ve had a death in the family and have to fly home on a moment’s notice. There are lots of reasons people need to make last minute travel plans. It can be an expensive way to travel, but there are definitely ways to save money.

First and foremost, sign up for all of the last minute travel deal notices offered by many airlines. They often come out midweek, and promote deals for travel on the upcoming Friday or Saturday. If your hankering to watch your favorite sports team on the road, or want to go play golf somewhere warm, then these travel deals might fit the bill.

Air Canada – Flies all over Canada to destinations in the U.S. and around the world.

AirTran – Primarily and east coast airline, but flies across the continent.

Alaska Airlines – Don’t miss their weekly web specials for last minute trips. Alaska flies to Hawaii, Alaska, and pretty much everywhere in the western U.S., as well as east coast destinations and Mexico.

American Airlines – One of the largest U.S. airlines. Don’t miss their NetSAAver and Special Offer fares every week.

Delta Airlines – Their hubs are in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati and Orlando. Great airline if you want to get to or from the midwest or southeast especially.

Frontier – Began service in 1994, and flies from Denver, all over the U.S., to Mexico and Canada.

Hawaiian Airlines – The name says it all. The place to look for last minute Hawaiian fare deals.

JetBlue – They fly all over the U.S., but reach more cities on the east coast than in the west.

Northwest Airlines – NWA is based in Minneapolis, and flies all over the world.

Southwest Airlines – Has a reputation for being very passenger friendly. Flies across the U.S. Look at their Click ‘n Save special offers.

Spirit Airlines – An ultra low cost carrier they say. Serves the Caribbean, Latin America, and the U.S.

Ted – This is United Airlines’ budget carrier. They fly to many major cities on the west coast, Mexico, Vegas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Florida — plus some other locations.

United Airlines – Chicago is their major hub. They fly just about everywhere. Definitely sign up to receive their free efares newsletter.

U.S. Airways is a major carrier serving 230 destinations worldwide.

Last Minute Travel Websites

In addition to checking the airline websites for their weekly fare specials and airfare deals, you should look at the primary travel websites: Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, HotWire.com, and SideStep.com — just to name a few. You’ll notice that just about all of these travel deal websites have a deals section for airfares, hotels, rental cars, and so forth.

Kayak.com bills itself as a travel search engine, searching travel websites all over the world for fares and rates.

They don’t sell anything and there are no service fees tacked on. This website was started by founders of Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia.

Finally, don’t forget about Priceline.com and the many travel auction websites on the Internet. At Priceline.com, you can submit a desired price or purchase specific things at a given price.

A relative newcomer to the airfare deals game is Farecast, a company that claims to predict whether fares you want are going up or down in the future. With this information you can decide when to purchase tickets. On their website check out the travel blog and definitely conduct some fare searches. Then, finally, sign up for fare alerts.

It’s worth noting most last minute travel sites offer hotel, auto, and travel package deals in addition to airfares.

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