Friday, June 01, 2007

CheapoAir.com - Great travel deals for families


I'm a huge bargain hunter so when I was approached to review the CheapoAir.com site, I was glad to find place where I could find great travel deals. Our last family trip to Disney World cost an arm and a leg but thankfully I got to keep my first born.

I just recently booked a trip for a geek conference in Las Vegas, I mean the Better Software Conference, so I figured I'd put these guys to the test. I had company-obtained tickets for $535 from Manchester NH to Las Vegas NV midweek. For the same dates and destinations, CheapoAir.com found flights for $387, quite a bit cheaper. The return flight was a red-eye, but well worth it if you were paying on your own dime or wanting to take your family with you. I actually have an ulterior motive for going to Las Vegas, besides never being before, I want to see Star Trek: The Experience. Between the software conference and trekkie heaven, it will be a totally immersing geeky 3 days for me!

Then I decided to window shop for a family vacation. I have heard wonderful things about the Disney Cruise Lines, so I clicked on their Cruises link. I found the usual Caribbean cruises (boring), but then the 10 night Mediterranean Cruise Disney caught my eye. Their cruises packages started at $1299 and went from Barcelona to Palermo, Naples, Sardinia, Rome, Florence/Pisa, Marseilles, and Villefranche. How cool would that be to bring the kids to Europe in a safe non-threatening Disney way. Unfortunately the dates in June didn't mesh with plans that have already been made, with Adam attending my MIT reunion and swim lessons starting. Besides, I was just window shopping! Of course the downer is that you also have to book flights to Europe. At the bottom of the cruise description, I clicked on the "Book Now on CheapoAir.com" banner and it immediately brought me to a flight booking form with the cruise dates already pre-filled. I typed in Boston to Barcelona, and amazingly, they came up with tickets for only $389! Quite affordable indeed.

So for due diligence, I tried this out on my usual personal travel site, Expedia.com. They did have a the same cruise for the same price, but when I went to check the airfares, it was a completely different story. First of all, there was no nice pre-filled form with the dates, so I had to switch back and forth to fill in the information. Then the best flight fare was $1225! Hardly affordable for a family of four. I don't know how CheapoAir does it, but they sure are doing something right.

I had the opportunity to ask them a few questions as well:

How is CheapoAir.com different from other travel sites?
We are dedicated to providing quality travel products to today's budget traveler. With the advent of the Internet, the world is a much smaller place. Cities that we've only dreamed of visiting are now a click away and so is planning that dream vacation. People also work very hard for their money. Weekend getaways, last minute travel, it can all seem overwhelmingly expensive and impossible. We make it affordable! Our core product is airfare, namely cheap airfare! We also offer cheap car rentals, affordable hotel reservations, and inexpensive cruise and vacation bookings. We're launching comprehensive destination guides throughout the month of May and over the summer. We offer a bi-weekly Fare Alerts Newsletter and ongoing travel deals to top destinations throughout each month.

We listen to our customers. We welcome and appreciate constructive criticism. We want to hear from our customers and do. We're also always upgrading our technology to maximize the consumer experience and save customers time.
How does CheapoAir.com get lower rates?
We have over 18 million negotiated and exclusive fares. Each executive team member brings 20+ years of travel industry experience and expertise to the table.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, you're right!! They're doing a good service. Even I booked cheap fares with them quite a few times.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for hitting back!!!

Maryam in Marrakesh said...

Wow, those look like some pretty significant savings:-)