Travel Tips: Ways to Save Money and Headaches

I travel usually 5-8 times a year. No, it's not as many as a lot of people I know, however nine times out of ten I have to pay out of my own pocket. So here are a few tips to save you money and a few headaches and still use the same resources you know and love.

Book Trips Online

First, as many of you probably know, consider using online flight and hotel purchasing. Because I go to a lot of conferences my hotels are usually taken care of, but what about flights? In the past I used to search on all the big-name sites like travelocity, CheapTickets, Expedia, Orbitz, etc. Unfortunately searching all of those sites for the best fare, flight times, seating, etc. can take so many hours (non-billable hours) that you could have just bought the tickets at MSRP and saved money.

Kayak.com

What if I told you there was a way to search all of those sites (and more) in a single search? Don't believe me, check out Kayak.com. I've been using it for almost two years now. It searches over 120+ providers. I really like their search results. Plus they let you pin (or save) a certain search result to compare to other saved results (as long as the session allows).

SeatGuru.com

The next thing I do is seating. We all know that where you sit on a plane is a gamble with regards to a pleasant ride. Will I have room under the seat in front me to store my carry-on or laptop? Will I be too close to a high-traffic area?

Maybe you think you know a good place to sit on say a 777 because you've had a good experience in the past. But did you know there are many models/versions of a 777 and that each model can have drastic changes with regards to layout and seating experience? Not a problem. Check out SeatGuru.com; another Web2.0 site that gives you detailed information about the seating layout on a plane. Just hover over the seat(s) you are interested in and it will give you decent information. Maybe a seat you were looking to sit in only tilts back a few degrees (or not at all). Perhaps the television screen that plays from the ceiling cannot be seen very well from a particular row. This site covers it all in an easy-to-use interface and is free to use.