Travelers who have a budget but aren't sure where to vacation, can check out a special tool on farecast.com. For example, if they want to spend under $300 on airfare. With the Where to Travel graph, Consumers can find out what destinations out of Chicago are $300 or less: Cabo San Lucas is $465 from Chicago, but San Juan Puerto Rico is just as warm and beautiful and can be had for $233!
What do travelers do about delayed or canceled flights?
- If your 30-minute delay has stretched into hours, it is time to look for another option. Since, there are no federal regulations governing how airlines should help passengers affected by delayed flights, take matters into your own hands. Dial the airline's customer service number while you're in line to change your ticket; you might find an open seat before you reach the counter.
- Another option is to head to the frequent-flier lounge. Even if you're not a member, you can buy a one-day pass and make use of the less harried lounge staff to rebook your trip.
- Another possible scenario would be that you have a ticket, but don't have a seat. The flight is overbooked flight, and you're out. Airlines routinely oversell flights to compensate for no-shows, but now this is happening more frequently with many airlines grounding planes. So what do you do? Negotiate on the spot. You have the right to ask for a full refund if you don't want to accept the standard offer of a free trip in the future. You're also entitled to as much as $400 if the airline can't get you another flight or the substitute flight arrives more than two hours later than your original itinerary. If you have your laptop, find out when other carriers are flying to your destination; when you ask to have your ticket endorsed over to another airline, you'll already know which flight you want.
TRAVEL TIPS:
- Friday May 16 is the most expensive day to fly domestically, with average fares from Chicago hitting nearly $400
- For week long trips departing in June, Chicago is more expensive this year than last with 2008 prices averaging 16% higher than equivalent 2007 prices
- Prices have been trending down in the last two week though, so now may be a good time to buy
- Fly on Tuesday to yield big savings.
- A seven night trip departing Tuesday June 10 averages nearly $100 cheaper than an equivalent trip departing three days later on Friday June 13
For more information visit www.farecast.com.
