Seven sites to see before you fly

There's nothing worse than being stuck in the middle seat when you're hungry and hours behind schedule. Before you step on the plane, be sure to hop online to check out these seven websites. They just might give you all the information you need to make your next trip that much more comfortable.

1. SeatGuru: This site labels itself the "enlightened guide to airplane seating." After you select your airline and the plane you'll be flying on, SeatGuru displays a diagram of the aircraft, labeled with recommendations about good and bad seats and the locations of power ports and lavatories. When it comes time to select my seat, I always consult SeatGuru for advice.
   


2. Weather: Don't forget to check the temperature and forecast for the city you'll be visiting, and pack accordingly. If it's going to be considerably colder at my home location than it is where I'm going, I tend not to bring a jacket, because I figure I won't be spending much time outside on my way to the airport, and the extra coat would just add weight to my luggage.


3. Airline check-in: One of the best time-savers is to print your boarding pass in advance and avoid the line at the airport ticket counter or kiosk. If you didn't get your preferred seat when you booked your flight, it's worth seeing if you can change your seat location when you check in online. And if you're still stuck in the middle seat, be sure and speak to a gate agent at the airport; sometimes they'll be able to put you in an exit row, or perhaps a seat will have become available someplace else on the plane.
   


4. Airport websites: These links are courtesy of JohnnyJet, whose travel portal is a goldmine of travel information. It's always helpful to find out what you can about the airport you're departing from, as well as the one you're arriving at. Where is the parking located, or is there public transportation access? How are the terminals laid out, particularly if you need to connect between them in a short time? What are your dining options? If you've planned ahead, you're less likely to need a mad scramble to the gate to catch your flight.
   


5. Convention and visitors bureaus: Are you traveling for vacation? If so, it's worth checking with local agencies that provide official tourist information. You can often find discounted hotel rates, information about top attractions, and coupons that offer savings for restaurants and shopping. However, if you forget to print them out in advance, most destinations publish tourist guides that provide similar deals. This is the best way to know where to go when you're on vacation, and also how to keep your costs down while you're there.
   


6. Flight delays: Particularly during the holiday season, it's inevitable that the airlines will be running behind schedule. Keep up to date by checking this site, or by getting your carrier to send flight status information to your cell phone or pager. It's also worthwhile to know your airline's flight schedule, in case you need to make alternate plans to get to your destination.
   


7. Airline humor: Whether it's because your flight is delayed, your luggage is lost, or you didn't have time for lunch, it's better to laugh than cry about everything that went wrong on your trip. Check out this site, "celebrating 100 years of laughter in the air." One nugget: "The Wright brothers served the same meal that I got on my last flight -- nothing."

I hope you've enjoyed reading my column. I'll be on hiatus until 2005 as I develop some new ventures. Watch this page for more details!

Forecast for the monsters of Midway: Higher fares, bumpy skies

Travelers at Chicago's Midway Airport should brace for turbulence in 2005. While Southwest's $117 million purchase of six of ATA's gates has some apparent benefits for consumers, the deal boosts the airline's market share at Midway to nearly 60 percent. And with ATA cutting back on its flight schedule and partnering with Southwest on many of its remaining routes, the two low-fare rivals will no longer be competing aggressively for passengers in Chicago. And that could mean higher fares for Windy City travelers.

Plus, Southwest's codeshare agreement with ATA marks a departure from its tried-and-true formula of quick turnarounds and efficient operations. Although ATA generally has a better on-time performance record than Southwest, the need to coordinate between the two airlines - especially given the prevalence of flight delays in Chicago - could cause massive customer service problems for Midway customers.

The deal between Southwest and ATA calls for a codesharing arrangement between the two airlines on up to 9 routes initially. Although those cities have not yet been defined, in theory a passenger traveling to Boston could purchase his entire trip on Southwest, even though the flight to that airport would be operated by ATA. Similarly, the codeshare could give Southwest the ability to sell tickets to New York's LaGuardia and Washington's Reagan National, as well as Dallas' Ft. Worth Airport, to which it's legally prohibited from operating flights.

But with ATA largely off the competitive landscape (even though the airlines won't collaborate on setting fares, ATA will be flying to fewer cities), Southwest will be fighting with American and United, not ATA, for market share in Chicago. And given the dominance of those airlines in the Windy City, Southwest will struggle to turn a profit without raising its leisure fares. Plus, American and United may choose not to match Southwest's cheapest tickets. If they don't, those prices are likely to creep up over time.

On key business routes, Southwest's simple fare structure will put pressure on the major carriers to match prices. But Southwest, even with the additional horsepower provided by ATA, simply can't operate enough frequency to compete with the bigger airlines on price alone. The best thing for consumers might be for another low fare carrier, like JetBlue, to arrive in Chicago. If that were to happen, Southwest would have greater incentive to keep its fares low and improve its service to match JetBlue's superior product.

It also remains to be seen how Southwest and ATA will attempt to integrate their frequent flier programs. While Southwest uses a credit-based system, ATA's program is based on points. And because Southwest offers neither business-class seating nor elite status, ATA passengers might be able to earn points for a Southwest flight, but they'd lose many of their benefits when they fly the partner airline. In the other direction, Southwest passengers will probably be able to cash in an award ticket for a seat on ATA. But if their trip involves both carriers, that award could require additional points. While the details have yet to be announced, it's worth mentioning that neither program is terribly useful for the infrequent traveler, because on both airlines, points and credits expire just after 12 months.

In the months ahead, Southwest will be facing challenges it's never had to confront in more than three decades of flying. Be sure to watch "Airline" on A&E to see how it all plays out.

How to cash in your miles for a free seat

It's pointless to let your frequent flier miles sit around gathering dust. If you can't redeem them for a free ticket, an upgrade, or even a magazine subscription, they're essentially worthless. They don't earn interest in your account, unlike real currency. And over time, their effective value is bound to decrease, as airlines will inevitably raise the cost of their awards.

Plus, the competition for the most highly-desired seats is only going to heat up. There are thousands of opportunities to earn miles, and millions of people going after them. Many airlines are cutting their flight schedules, limiting opportunities for free tickets. And with so many carriers in financial trouble, the likelihood your miles will still be around when you're ready to use them is less than it once was. So the time to use your miles is now. But how can you maximize the chances you'll find an available award seat?

Similar to searching for a sale fare, the keys to snagging a frequent flier award are flexibility and persistence. For a popular destination in peak season, like Europe in the summer, it's best to start inquiring about award seats 330 days, or approximately 11 months, before you'd like to travel. That's when airlines begin loading flights in their reservations systems. Sometimes that won't happen exactly on schedule, so it's a good idea to call the airline a few days before to try and book your flight.

It's much easier to score a free seat if you can be flexible with your travel plans. Some airlines offer online tools that search a range of dates for award seats. If there are no awards on your preferred travel day, American will display flight combinations on the next available date. For a given month, US Airways will show you dates when you can get an award ticket. And Continental tries to be helpful by providing a color-coded calendar that shows when seats are open. However, its calendar doesn't illustrate which days have availability at its "standard" (25,000 mile) levels, so you need to check each date individually if you don't want to spend more miles than you need to.

If you're having trouble finding seats at all, consider changing your routing. Can you fly from your home city through a different hub airport to your destination? Can you travel to or from a nearby airport instead? Or can you make a stopover on an international trip that opens up award seats on a different day?

You could also consider an award on a partner airline. For example, try using US Airways miles to book a trip on United, if the US Airways flights are sold out. If that doesn't work, be sure to check with the other carrier, since the two partners might have access to different award inventory on the same plane.

A final strategy is to be realistic about the award you're trying to get. Improve your odds by traveling at an off-peak time of the year, when in many cases you'll be able to use fewer miles for the same seat. Or choose a less popular destination that has less demand for free travel; American and Delta are among the carriers that publish lists of "hotspots" that have plenty of award availability.

Sometimes, it's worthwhile to buy your ticket to your dream destination, instead of using miles. If you find a good deal to Hawaii, for example, you could earn 10,000 miles for the flight alone. When you pay for a seat, your account will still be brimming with the miles you didn't use for an award. Then, when it comes time for your next vacation, you can trade in those miles for a free ticket or a first-class upgrade, which could easily be worth $1,000 or more.

Your goal with your frequent flier account should be to spend the least amount of miles for the highest-value award. When you let your miles just sit on the shelf, they're not worth a thing.

How to find those super-low fares

One of the most useful deal-finding tools on the Internet is Yahoo!'s "Best Fare Tracker." It can quickly determine the lowest possible price for a flight between whichever cities you're interested in watching. This morning, for example, I see that tickets from Chicago to Phoenix are selling for as little as $143, Las Vegas or Washington, D.C. flights are starting at $153, and travel to Boston, Seattle, or San Diego is as low as $163. Those are enticing prices, to be sure. But are they real deals, or are those fares dangling just out of reach, like juicy apples high up in a tree?

What you're really seeing on Yahoo! isn't the price of an actual trip. Rather, it's the cost of a hypothetical ticket on Travelocity, using fares published in that site's system. And because Yahoo! also includes Travelocity's booking fee, as a rule, I subtract $5 from the listed price. That gives me a benchmark for the lowest fare on whichever route I'm watching.

Unfortunately, for multiple reasons, you're never going to be able to find the benchmark price for a ticket on the dates you want to fly. First, the "Best Fare" doesn't include taxes and fees; you'll need to add $20 to $40 to the fare for a domestic trip. Second, the benchmark price is generally only valid for certain dates or days of the week. The fare could be substantially higher for your preferred itinerary. And third, the cheapest tickets could already be sold out. Just because Yahoo! finds a low fare in Travelocity's system doesn't mean that you can actually book at a seat at that price.

But that's no reason to give up your search for a great deal. If you can't be flexible with your travel dates and times, check the price on a few different websites, including Travelocity. Sometimes an airline will offer an exclusive deal that Yahoo!'s tracker won't find. Also, remember that Travelocity doesn't sell tickets on Southwest or JetBlue, so you'll also need to search those sites, either separately or with a scraper like SideStep. Finally, if your trip is at least two weeks away, watch Yahoo! daily to see how the lowest price changes. Airlines file new fares at least three times a day; it's definitely worth repeating your search on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when ticket prices seem to be the most volatile.

If booking a seat at the lowest possible price is your primary goal, the best approach is to adjust your travel plans according to the rules of that particular fare. (You can figure out the restrictions by clicking on "Rules" next to the specific fare on Yahoo!.) The $163 fare to Boston, for example, requires that you complete your trip by February 28, 2005, but you have to avoid traveling on peak holiday dates. And the $163 fare to Seattle only applies to flights on ATA or Frontier. Count on paying more if you prefer a different airline.

But even if you're willing to do whatever it takes to get the lowest fare, you can't guarantee there will be any seats left at that price. How can you tell when there's availability? Travelocity has introduced a new feature that tells you how many seats are left at a given price, but it only appeared for some of the searches I conducted. Usually, I find it's most helpful to rely on the flexible search tools that let you scan a range of dates at once. The best are Orbitz's "FlexSearch" and Southwest's "Shortcut to Low Fares," but you can also find this feature - in one form or another - when you search for tickets on American, Air Canada, America West, British Airways, Continental, and Song. The sites that make the search easiest show you exactly what you'd pay for a ticket on any combination of dates within a certain travel window. And if you know the benchmark price (don't forget to account for taxes and fees!), it's easy to tell which days you should fly on to get the best deal.

So the next time you search for an airline ticket, don't despair if the fare seems too high. Figure out the benchmark price, factor in the taxes and fees, and then be flexible enough with your plans to seal the deal. Or, if your travel dates are set in stone, check a bunch of different sites, wait for the fare to drop (it almost always does), or think creatively, trying alternate airports or a different routing. And that super-low fare you thought was out of reach? It might just turn out to be low-hanging fruit.

Five sites to find great hotel and vacation deals

When travelers ask me how to find the best airfare deals, I usually advise that the most important strategy is to compare the fares on multiple websites. Ticket prices can change several times a day, and a single airline or online travel agency is unlikely to always have the best prices on your route.

However, when you're looking for a hotel room or a vacation package, I can recommend a few travel websites that offer one-stop shopping. Here are five of my favorite sites that typically serve up astonishingly good deals and information.

1. Go-today.com: This site sets the benchmark for air-and-hotel packages to destinations around the world. The prices are historically low - and the deals are actually available. For example, if you want a vacation in London in January, you can get round-trip airfare and six nights hotel for the rock-bottom rate of $299 per person. Or jet off to Beijing with a similar deal for $599 per person. You'll have to spend a little more if you're not departing from the nearest gateway, or if you want a better-quality hotel, but the value you'll get for a week's vacation is unparalleled.


2. Site59.com: If you're in need of a last-minute getaway, the place to look is Site59. You'll find great rates on whatever combination of travel components you need: flights, hotels, or car rentals, and you can book as little as 3 hours in advance. For example, I could take off today and spend the weekend in Myrtle Beach for under $200 per person. Plus, Site59 has a couple of user-friendly features that rank among the best in the industry. As you make changes to your itinerary, your exact price is always displayed, including taxes and fees. And if you're not entirely sure where you want to go, Site59's sophisticated search makes it easy to find a destination that's a good match for your interests and flexibility.


3. BiddingForTravel.com: If you need a hotel room but can't tell a Hyatt from a Hilton, I often suggest booking on Priceline, where it's possible to pay a fraction of the normal rates. But Priceline can be intimidating for users that aren't familiar with how it works, and it can be easy to pay more than you need to. BiddingforTravel is a message board that lists winning Priceline "bids" and offers detailed advice on booking strategies. This morning, I learned that you could stay in the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago in late December for as little as $44 per night. You're unlikely to find a deal that good anywhere else on the Internet.


4. Quikbook.com: This is the site I start with when I need to book a room and I don't want to use Priceline. Quikbook offers the guaranteed lowest price on its wide selection of properties, and like Site59, offers some extremely consumer-friendly features. If you're not familiar with the city you're visiting, you can see the location of specific hotels on a map that lists local attractions. You can search only hotels in certain categories, like pet-friendly properties or those with historic restaurants. And you can choose from properties where you pay when you stay and those where you pay in advance; if you have to cancel, the penalty is a very reasonable $10 fee.
   


5. TripAdvisor.com: If you're planning a vacation, it can sometimes be hard to tell whether a hotel you're thinking about booking is worth the money you'll pay for it. TripAdvisor is the place to check for honest reviews written by guests who've stayed at a particular property. For example, by using TripAdvisor before my trip to Hawaii last year, I learned that one hotel I might have booked was known for the roosters that awaken the guests every morning before dawn! I don't recommend booking with TripAdvisor's links, because you may be able to find the same property at a better price at Quikbook or another site. But it's a great place for information that can help you choose the right hotel for you.

If you've checked all of those sites and are still looking for a great vacation package or hotel deal, your best strategy is to shop on multiple sites. Try Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, use rate comparison tools like SideStep, Booking Buddy, or Travelaxe, and visit hotel websites to check the rates that usually come with a low-price guarantee. After an hour or two of research, you'll probably come up with some decent options. But if you're looking to save time and find a great deal, your best bet is to start with the five websites above.

Why'd you fly from O'Hare to Midway, and other airfare tricks

Tired of your lousy commute through the congested highways of Chicago? For as little as $200, you can catch a flight from O'Hare and land at Midway. Sure, you'll have to pass through Detroit, Dallas, or Milwaukee on the way, but you can earn thousands of frequent flier miles, which will come in handy if you're gunning for elite status at this time of the year.

Plus, flying from O'Hare to Midway is a better deal than what American is pitching its most loyal customers. For between $450 and $750, depending on your status and how much you've flown already this year, American will let you renew your Platinum or Gold membership, which allows you to enjoy first-class upgrades and priority boarding.

If you're close to the regular qualification levels, however, it may be worth forgoing American's offer and booking a flight known as a "mileage run" instead. That's a trip, like the O'Hare to Midway example, that you take for the sole purpose of earning frequent flier benefits. Typically, frequent flier junkies will make a mileage run to qualify for elite status at the end of the year, or if there's a particularly lucrative offer (say double miles) that they can combine with a lower-than-normal fare. They might travel with an extra-long connection that earns them bonus miles, such as New York to London, via Los Angeles, or they might make an overnight or same-day trip to a city that's just far enough away to earn them the miles they need.

While flying from O'Hare to Midway may sound ridiculous, the airlines will be perfectly happy to pocket your money and let you board the plane. (You'll have to book on Orbitz or another site that lets you choose specific flight combinations to make up an itinerary.) There are other booking tricks, however, that the airlines frown upon, and in some cases will prevent you from using. You can try these strategies to find lower fares, but I don't recommend them unless you're sure the airlines won't catch on. If they do, you run the risk that your ticket will be declared invalid, and you may have to purchase a new one to get home.

The most common airfare booking trick is called "back-to-back ticketing." Let's say you want to fly from Chicago to New York for an overnight business trip. Ordinarily you'd have to buy a high-fare unrestricted ticket, for at least $600. But instead, you can buy two round-trip tickets, one leaving from Chicago and one from New York, and both including a Saturday-night stay. You'd use just the first half of each ticket to travel on the days you want, saving a few hundred bucks in the process. If you're going to employ this tactic, be sure to use different airlines that aren't partners, for example, Southwest and American. Otherwise, the reservations systems will flag your booking, and you may be asked to pay an additional fee before you fly.

A second trick, most useful on one-way trips, employs what's known as "hidden cities." Let's say that you need to fly from Dallas to Chicago, but you realize that the fare's actually much cheaper if you buy a ticket from Dallas to Minneapolis. What you can do is arrange your ticket to include a layover in Chicago, and then simply intentionally miss your connecting flight. This doesn't work on round-trip tickets, because as soon as you miss a leg of your itinerary, the remainder of your ticket will be automatically cancelled.

Being creative about how you book your fare can save money on your airfare, earn you more miles, or get you closer to elite status. But if none of those goals are on your travel to-do list today, at least you'll have something to mull over while you're stuck in traffic on the long commute home. And that just might make a trip from O'Hare to Midway sound like a brilliant idea.

Ride the sails of airline partnerships

One is based in Atlanta, the other in Seattle. One is an international carrier serving the top capitals of the world, while the other flies mostly around the West Coast. But these two very different airlines, Delta and Alaska, clearly found that opposites attract. They're the latest carriers to announce a type of partnership that's known in the industry as a "codesharing agreement."

Simply, codesharing means that one airline is allowed to place its two-letter designation, or code, on flights operated by the other. The two carriers, therefore, can sell tickets on each other's planes. In theory, frequent fliers can earn or redeem miles on either airline, as well as book a single ticket that encompasses individual flight segments on both. And members of both airlines' elite programs can get access to the other's airport lounges.

Delta and Alaska frequent fliers are already able to earn miles by flying either carrier, and have the key to each other's airport clubs. But the next phase of the partnership, including frequent flier redemption as well as codesharing, is set to roll out on January 10. Delta travelers will be able to take Alaska planes from Seattle or Anchorage to a handful of (unspecified) destinations, while Alaska fliers will be able to board Delta planes from Seattle, Anchorage, or Portland, Oregon.

Those cities only scratch the surface of the airlines' networks, of course. But the good news is that the carriers say they will be expanding their partnership in the future. However, until they do, the benefits you can enjoy from codesharing will be limited to fliers departing from those Western cities.

For example, Delta flies from Seattle only to Atlanta, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, and New York City. The airline hasn't said which destinations it's codesharing with Alaska. But let's suppose Atlanta is one of them. The flight from Seattle to Atlanta will have both Delta and Alaska flight numbers, and the side of the plane will have a Delta logo. But fliers can choose to earn Alaska miles for that flight, instead of Delta miles. However, let's then suppose that your final destination is actually Tampa. Because Alaska doesn't yet codeshare any flights from Atlanta, you'll still have to buy a separate ticket on Delta (or another airline) from Atlanta to Tampa - even if you can earn miles on Alaska for the whole trip to Florida.

If you're riding the sails of an airline partnership, there are a couple of things to watch out for. Be sure you specify when booking which frequent flier account you want your miles credited to. And make sure to check in at the right gate: Even if Delta sold you the ticket, you need to show up at Alaska's terminal if you're flying on its aircraft. And sometimes, it won't be entirely obvious that you're not traveling on the airline your bought the ticket from; one telltale sign is a flight number of 5000 or higher.

However, despite any confusion you might experience, the ability to redeem your miles on another airline - the most important benefit of these partnerships - more than makes up for it. So if you've built up an account of Delta SkyMiles, you'll soon be able to redeem them to any of Alaska's destinations, or vice versa. And, depending on how close you live to one of these airlines' hub cities, that'll open up a whole new range of places you can fly for free.

Don't be surprised by high travel taxes

The cost of a plane ticket is going up on January 1 - but don't blame the airlines. The U.S. government has decided to raise the flight segment tax that you pay for every takeoff from $3.10 to $3.20. And while the extra dime probably won't put a serious dent in your travel budget, it's just one of a dozen government-imposed charges you may encounter on a typical trip. There's no way to avoid most of these taxes, but if you know what to expect, at least you'll be less likely to experience sticker shock when it comes time to pay the bill.

When you book a $200 airfare, the price of your ticket already includes one of the most significant taxes: a 7.5% "federal ticket tax" that funds most of the FAA's annual budget, supporting airports and aviation infrastructure. But the fare you typically see quoted does not include three other charges.

First, you'll pay the federal flight segment tax of $3.20 per takeoff. Along with the ticket tax, these revenues are expected to top $15 billion in 2005, according to the Air Transport Association. Second, your total fare will include a September 11th Security Fee of $2.50 per flight segment, up to a maximum of $5 one-way or $10 round-trip. This tax funds the TSA screeners and other aviation security measures. Airlines also pay a security charge that varies by carrier. Finally, you'll pay a "Passenger Facility Charge" (PFC) of up to $4.50 per flight segment, up to a maximum of $9 one-way or $18 round-trip. Local airports set the amounts; you'll pay a $4.50 tax when you depart from O'Hare, for example, but only $3 when you leave from Midway.

What does all that add up to? Take your base fare, which includes the federal ticket tax, and then add about $20 for a nonstop round-trip ticket. If you're making a connection, count on approximately $40 in additional taxes. And if you're traveling internationally, expect a whole slew of extra taxes, some levied by the U.S. and some by the country you're traveling to. My rule of thumb is to add an extra $100 to my ticket price.

If you're staying in a hotel or renting a car, you'll also pay a wide variety of taxes, many of which depend on specifically where you're going. But these can pile up, too. On a recent hotel stay in New Orleans, I paid no fewer than 6 different taxes that added an extra 20 percent to my room cost, including both a state tax and a parish (county) tax, plus a mysterious "security insurance" charge. And some communities use hotel taxes to pay for sports stadiums, convention centers, and the like, regardless of whether the people paying those taxes (usually out-of-town visitors) benefit from those publicly-funded projects.

Car rentals also frequently include extra charges to fund the local economy as well as civic initiatives, but these vary widely by airport. For a car I'm renting in Boston, I'll be paying a 5% sales tax, plus a "parking and convention surcharge" of more than $10, and an "airport access" fee of more than 10%. (Pick up your car at a city office, rather than at the airport, and you can avoid some of these taxes. However, rates tend to be higher at these locations.) According to a 2003 study by Travelocity, the average car renter pays an additional 24 percent in taxes and fees. Rent a car in Houston, however, and you could pay a whopping 72 percent of your base rate in taxes.

So between your airfare, your hotel room, and your rental car, don't be surprised if travel taxes run you at least $100, even if you're just going away for the weekend. So what if you're planning a romantic getaway for two? You can't stop Uncle Sam from coming along for the ride.

Earn more, burn less: Maximizing your frequent flier miles

The next time you make a withdrawal at the ATM, light a match and set your cash on fire. Does that sound like something you'd ever do? No? Well, if you book an airline ticket without considering the miles you'll earn for it, you may as well be throwing your money away.

Just by enrolling in your airline's frequent flier program, you'll be able to start accruing points toward free travel immediately. On a single trip, you can earn thousands of miles for the flight, plus bonuses for booking on the Web and checking in online or at an airport kiosk, and additional miles depending on the route you travel.

For example, US Airways just announced a minimum 7,500-mile bonus for winter flights to the U.K., even on their cheapest fares. Considering that you'll earn at least 5,000 miles for a round-trip to London, that bonus will get you more than halfway to a free ticket. And that's not even counting the additional bonus US Airways is offering in honor of its 20th anniversary (up to 20,000 bonus miles when you book multiple trips). If you're flying from the East Coast, fares to the U.K. start at about $300, including all taxes and fees. So it's practically worth taking the trip just for all the miles you'll earn.

On the other side of the coin, the fewer miles you can spend for an award ticket, the more you'll have left over for your next vacation. If you're planning a dream vacation to Mexico and don't already have a preferred airline, it may be helpful to know that an coach-class award ticket on United will cost 35,000 miles, while you can get the same reward for just 30,000 miles on American or Delta.

You can also save award miles by traveling during off-peak seasons. For example, US Airways will let you book a domestic award ticket for 20,000 miles, instead of the usual 25,000 miles, if you're flying between September 15 and February 28. And American offers off-peak awards to Mexico and the Caribbean starting at just 25,000 miles.

Sometimes airlines will run special promotions that let you book an award ticket for a reduced amount of miles. American and United, among others, are offering short-haul flights for just 15,000 miles this winter. And American publishes a quarterly list of destinations to which AAdvantage MasterCard holders can fly for at least 5,000 fewer miles than normal. For example, you can travel between January and March to Seattle or Vancouver for just 20,000 miles, Hawaii for 30,000 miles, or Lima, Peru for as little as 25,000 miles.

When the least expensive awards aren't available on the flight you prefer, most airlines will let you book a free ticket regardless, as long as you're willing to spend twice the amount of miles (for example, 50,000 for domestic travel). But it's rarely a good idea to use all those extra miles on a free trip. Because miles have a value of 1 to 2 cents each, you'll essentially be wasting a few hundred dollars in airline currency by booking that double-price ticket.

In a future article, I'll describe strategies for finding award tickets at the cheapest levels. Because while burning your miles is an excellent idea, there's no reason to let your frequent flier balance go up in smoke.

My next column will appear on December 14. In the meantime, I hope you'll take a few minutes to read any entries you've missed.

To flexible flyers, great deals are smooth sledding

If you're thinking about booking an airline ticket as a holiday gift, it's important to realize that purchasing airfare is definitely not like buying tickets to a play.

Let's say you're at the box office, and you're told that the performance you wanted to attend has already completely sold out. There's a possibility that tickets could become available at the last minute, but unless you go to a broker, you're not going to be able to get a seat for the sold-out show just by paying more.

However, if you want to fly from Chicago to Miami on the day before Christmas, even if the cheapest seats are already sold out, you can still buy a more expensive ticket. That's because airlines offer a wide range of prices for the same seats. A flight that sometimes runs as low as $200, for example, might cost you $300 or more if the lowest "fare class" isn't available. By waiting until someone else has snagged those cheap fares, you've ended up spending more for the exact same service than the guy sitting next to you. And in my mind, that's a waste of money.

That's why it's always a good idea to book your tickets as soon as you solidify your travel plans, assuming there are low prices available at that time. And if you're truly interested in saving money, the single best thing you can do is to be flexible with your travel dates. Not only do prices start lower on some days of the week (depending on the airline and route you're flying, it may be cheaper to go midweek, or on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Saturdays), but by being flexible, it's more likely you can travel on a day when the lowest fares haven't already sold out.

But how do you know if traveling a day earlier or later might cause the price of your ticket to drop? The good news for consumers is that more and more airlines are introducing flexible-date searches that mirror a similar service Orbitz launched in 2003. In the past month, both American and Air Canada have rolled out versions of this feature, joining a select club of airlines that includes America West, Continental, and British Airways.

Both American and Air Canada should be commended for making it extremely easy to learn which days are the cheapest to fly. When you choose the flexible search on American's website, you select a date range of up to 31 days and specify whether you want your trip to include a Saturday-night stay. A list of possible fares is returned to you, and you can then pick dates from a calendar when those fares are actually available for purchase.

Air Canada offers the flexible search whenever you shop for an airline ticket. You can see the cost of choosing a particular flight on your preferred days, along with the lowest possible price for travel on any other day that week. Let's say that you originally planned to fly Monday, for a fare of $200. When you price your ticket on Air Canada's website, it's easy to see that you can travel on Thursday for just $78. And then, when you select Thursday as your departure date, you can quickly tell exactly which flights will get you that fare. That's the kind of transparency that more airlines ought to strive for.

The alternative to flexible search is trial-and-error. Go to Delta's website and you can never be confident that you're getting the best fare in the marketplace. Rather than entering different combinations of dates until you find something you're satisfied with, you're better off using a site where you can compare fares - especially one where you can see that traveling on different dates might save you money. Stay flexible and it's likely you'll even be able to afford a pair of premium Broadway tickets. Just be sure to buy them before the show gets sold out.

Hit the jackpot with free entertainment in Vegas

Some travelers will spend hours trying to save money on airfare, when plane tickets actually represent only a fraction of the cost of their trip. Unless you're paying for first class, you probably won't be able to save more than a few hundred dollars - at most - by following all of my strategies for getting a good deal. It's much easier to keep your travel costs down by finding a good hotel rate. Whether you're getting a top-quality room for a cheaper price, or choosing a less expensive property, it's not impossible to save $500 or more on a week's vacation.

Set foot in Las Vegas, however, and your savings could suddenly vanish into thin air. One spin of the roulette wheel, one stroll through the ritzy Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace, or one bad decision to see Celine Dion - at up to $225 a ticket - and you could blow your travel budget in minutes.

However, you don't have to spend a dime to enjoy the sights of Sin City. Stroll up and down the Strip and marvel at the whimsical architecture of the casinos: the Egyptian pyramid-like Luxor; the New York, New York, with its faux skyline including the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building; or the King Arthur-themed Excalibur, with its turrets and colorful flags. Or you could enjoy the vibrant street theater, whether your tastes run toward the penthouse, or, um, Penthouse. But if you're looking for free entertainment in Las Vegas that's suitable for the whole family, be sure to check out these top 10 attractions:

• The Sirens of TI: A 15-minute extravaganza in Pirates' Cove at the Treasure Island casino, in which a band of pirates battles the seductive sirens in a dazzling display of pyrotechnics and high-diving acrobatics. The show, which runs 4 times a night, is sometimes canceled because of high winds.
  
• Volcano Eruption: Located in front of the Mirage, a volcano erupts every 15 minutes after dark, shooting flames up to 100 feet in the air.




• Bellagio Fountains: The dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio are choreographed to music in a spectacular show that repeats every 15 minutes after dark. Then stroll inside the casino to see its elegant lobby and colorful glass ceiling.
  
• Fremont Street Experience: Head downtown for this hourly light-and-sound show nearby some of Vegas' oldest casinos. There's plenty of neon to marvel at, too.
• White Tiger Habitat: Siegfried and Roy's famous white tigers are in residence at the Mirage. No need to worry: they're behind glass and are well fed.
  
• Lion Habitat: You can see more majestic felines at the MGM Grand, where the lions can be found batting around their big red rubber ball or chewing on a rawhide bone. Hmm, sounds like my dog.




• Wildlife Habitat: Step into a tropical rain forest at the Flamingo, where you can see lush foliage, waterfalls, and hundreds of birds. Don't miss the penguin feeding twice a day.
• M&M's World: Check out the wall of colorful candy and the 3-D movies atop this giant retail store on the Strip.
• Air Play: Pairs of acrobats swing from the Tiffany glass ceiling at the Tropicana, as hundreds of gamblers watch from their slot machines below.
• Casino Legends Hall of Fame: Also at the Tropicana, this museum features dozens of exhibits on gaming and famous gamblers. You'll get free admission when you sign up for the casino's Players Club.

And that's just the best in free entertainment. You could pay just a few dollars and entertain the kids at Circus Circus' Adventuredome, or take a ride on the roller coaster at New York New York. So instead of spending hundreds to hear Celine Dion wail the theme from Titanic, why not enjoy some of Vegas' free shows? You'll ensure your budget will go on, too.

Make extra hotel charges your last resort

I typically take my longest vacation of the year during Thanksgiving week, which coincides with my birthday. It also tends to be my most expensive trip of the year. So I'm always on the lookout for a good deal, and for ways to save money and get the most bang for the buck when I'm on the road.

Last week, I spent a few fantastic days after the holiday in Lake Tahoe. I stayed in an upscale hotel in a spectacular mountain setting, and there was a foot of new snow awaiting me on my birthday. Even better, I was thrilled with the deal I found. On the hotel's website, the cheapest room rate had been listed at about $220 per night. But I had booked an air-and-hotel package on Orbitz that effectively discounted the rate by about a third. (On Expedia, the exact vacation cost about $300 more, even higher than if I had booked the airfare and hotel separately.)

Though I believed I had already paid my entire bill in advance, when I checked out of the hotel, I noticed a curious series of charges and credits. First, even though my room was prepaid, I saw a $10 "resort fee" tacked on for each day of my stay. The resort fee was described as a "mandatory hotel charge" that included such amenities as telephone calls, use of the fitness center, bottled water, and a shuttle bus into town. When I questioned the fee, because I believed it had been included in my vacation booking, the desk clerk agreed to waive half the charge. But I then persisted that I should not be charged twice for the same amenities. Eventually, her supervisor confirmed that I had indeed already paid the resort fee, and she adjusted my account.

The second mysterious item on my bill was a $215 credit. The too-helpful desk clerk offered that I must have paid for my room by check. But she was thoroughly confused when I said I had pre-paid through an online travel agency. Instead of trying to sort out the mess, she suggested that the hotel would be happy to send me a refund for the balance on my account, and even gave my mailing address to the hotel's accounting department.

But what had really happened was that the payment Orbitz had sent the hotel for my stay (from its third-party vacation provider) had been posted to the wrong ledger. The amount Orbitz owed the hotel had been credited to my account, not to the hotel's books. So by offering me a refund, the desk clerk was effectively reducing the hotel's profit on my room to zero. What's interesting is that their revenue - which appears to be about $55 per night - is less than half of what I paid for the room.

It's no wonder, then, that hotels are asking their guests to pay an extra "resort fee." Like the "energy charges" some properties introduced a few years back, these are ways that hotels can increase their profits at a time when the booking pie is sliced ever more thinly among many competing channels, both off-line and online.

You probably can't avoid these fees if you choose to stay at a property that charges them. But you should definitely be aware of them - particularly if you might be paying them twice. And be sure to take advantage of the amenities they allow. Don't pay for bottled water, for example, if you're getting some for free in your room.

Fortunately for the hotel, the supervisor was able to straighten out the accounting debacle. But although I wasn't going to be issued a check I didn't deserve, I did remember another benefit that my hotel stay entitled me to. By signing up for the hotel's loyalty program, I was able to earn either hotel points or airline miles. And because I'm closing in on an award level, I chose to earn miles in American's frequent flier program. Within a few weeks, I should see my account balance increase by 500 miles, which has a value of $5 to $10.

Considering the price of my hotel room, that's small potatoes. But I'll think of it as a belated birthday present. Instead of paying an extra $40 in resort fees that I didn't need to, I earned miles just by asking for them. That'll get me one step closer to my next free ticket. And it shouldn't be a surprise that my favorite kind of vacation is one I take for free.