Great Travel Bargains, Just A Click Away

If you love travel, there are some great bargains on the Internet. But you have to know where to look for them. AOL Consumer Adviser Regina Lewis stopped by The Early Show to offer some tips on where to find the best deals.

Lewis says that all sites are not created equal. "I will tell you about half of all personal travel is booked on the Internet these days. Most people use about three or five different sites. The key is what combination, understanding what they do and don't do for you. The people who get this right are spending more to drive and park at the airport than to fly back and forth across the country," she says.

"There's about three types of sites. The first is the search engine, where you type in where you are starting from, where you want to go, some dates. And, boom, they search," Lewis says.

Sites like SideStep.com and Farechase.com fall under that category.

"The trick is, do they search everything? They search a lot, but they aren't searching everything that the airlines offer," Lewis points out.

The second type of sites are the standard travel booking sites, like Travelocity.com and Expedia.com.

"They are really popular. They are heavily advertised again, they have a vested interest in promoting certain flights, not necessarily all," Lewis explains.

Final, there are "blind" travel sites, like Priceline.com, where you place a bid and see if you get it.

Lewis says you can save money about 50 percent of the time. "Consumer Reports in an extensive study. About 50% of time you'll do better," she says.

Sadly, Lewis says there is no site that combines all these elements. "It has to do with the fact that it's a very competitive industry. The airlines. So there is no one site. You have to use them in combination," she says.

Comparison shopping is the name of the game. "Although, don't knock yourself out to save the very last dollar or the biggest investment you'll make is time," Lewis recommends. "And consider going directly to the airlines. You know, they were a little late to this game because the Internet kind of snuck up on them. But now going directly might be your best move. You might find flights they have not listed anywhere else."

One red flag is the term "best value" vs. "best value."

"Best value is a marketing term. This used to be very expensive. It's like 70 percent off on something that needs to be 70 percent off in order to be not price prohibitive. Best price, best value, two different things," Lewis explains.

Also, remember that some of the sites charge booking fees. "About $5 to $15, although not for the search engine and not if you go directly to the airline. The bigger concern is penalties for getting out. Make sure you know what's refundable, what cancellations or changes will charge you," Lewis says.

Speaking about buying package deals, including hotel and airfare, Lewis says it sometimes can be a bargain, but, "the only real way to know is to add it up separately. Then it's tricky to compare. Is it the exact same hotel room, same view? What are you comparing?"

The single biggest factor, Lewis says, is being flexible. "When you check the box for nonstop, the second you say you'll do one stop or two-plus, fundamentally changes the entire equation. So flexibility is key. Maybe even staying over on a Saturday or Sunday. All those questions you used to talk on the phone with a travel agent about or were curious about, now you get to play with the levers and see how it adjusts the price," she says.

"Then you have to decide. What's the cost of that layover. Two hours in Chicago? Are you up for that? Maybe yes in June. Maybe not in January for weather risk reasons," she adds.

Also, Lewis recommends checking local sites. "There's two groups of people who know best – people who just got back from wherever you are going and people who live there," she says.

Lewis says sites like AOL City Guide can be a great resource to get information on shows, restaurants and local attractions.

Click here for more about Regina Lewis.