With the advent of travelocity and the like, it is supposed to be easy to save tons of money on travel. Just go on-line, compare and contrast, and bingo: you are a frugal traveler.
For us--and we travel a lot, owing to the locations of our surviving parents--it hasn't quite worked out that way. Mr. FS spends HOURS on line, watching prices go up and down (in no discernible pattern), changing dates a bit, and we end up spending...what we spend. All that work! No big savings on airfare.
However, it is worth checking and re-checking on car rentals. The prices change a lot. Unlike plane reservations, where you pay a big penalty for changing your dates, car rentals are no-penalty. You can change all you want.
Mr. FS has been quite morose because our car rental in Massachusetts was more than double what we usually pay. He first made a reservation in May: $549.91. He looked every few days, and then got a new reservation in June: $468.79.
Then he tried again. In the past, prices went up as the summer progressed. But this time, not. July: $234.66!
It's a bit cheaper at Dollar, but we are boycotting that company FOREVER, due to abysmal problems a few years ago. (Details on request.)
Question: did we save money or not? The price is what we are accustomed to paying, but it is $300 less than the first reservation. Whatever.
Do you have any good tips for frugal travel?
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