Got Winter Wanderlust?

Last-minute deals abound ... if you know where and how to look! By Debbie Gardner PRIME Editor The press releases hawking travel deals started arriving in our office in late October. Offers such as discounted tours to exotic Asian locales through March 2006. And special pricing on early-spring barge cruises through the French countryside. Then there were the early-bird fares on post-holiday small-ship cruises through the Caribbean. We wondered is there a pattern developing here? Could it be that the travel market was reacting to the projected bump in this winter's heating costs by slashing prices and offering deals? Could this winter actually turn out to be a good time to travel especially last-minute? PRIME decided to check out the state of affairs for the 2006 winter travel season. Here's what our experts had to say. The industry is creating deals "In the adventure travel industry which we represent, operators are packaging their trips to include airfare, ground transfers, etc. to save money," Nancy Harrison Pfeiffer, founder and managing partner of Adventure Travel Media Source told PRIME via e-mail. Pfeiffer said she's also seeing an increase in deals for mature travelers. "Typically [they offer] a discount and sometimes [companies] offer off-season pricing," she said. But the term "deal" is subjective "I'm seeing Aruba for $849 per person for seven days [on a charter] on Jan. 8 direct from Hartford. That's a good price in today's market," Don Anderson, president of The Cruise Store, an East Longmeadow, Mass- based cruise-and-travel agency, told PRIME in a telephone interview on Dec. 12. A half-hour later, Anderson called me back and said he'd seen the price drop $50 per person, to $799, for the same Jan. 8 vacation package. On Jan. 15, that seven-day Aruba charter jumps to $899. "They're great prices," Anderson said. "However, this same time last year prices were lower. [This year] we're having to deal with fuel prices and, admitidly, a higher demand." The Cruise Store, which books the annual cruise for WHYN 95.6 FM morning radio personalities Dan and Kim, saw their largest response ever for the January 2006 cruise. Anderson said 176 people will be joining their favorite morning radio personalities on a Caribbean cruise this year. And, he said he just found one of those "senior specials" for Dan & Kim cruisers who are 55-plus. "[It] just popped up out of nowhere ... we just saved them [up to] $380, depending on the type of cabin they bought." So, Anderson said, deals do exist, if you know where and how to look. "You would not have gotten that [discount] unilaterally with Travelocity or Orbitz," he said, referring to two of the more popular online travel discount web sites. A lot depends on how you shop "The issue is, [people] buy a vacation almost the way [they] buy wine," Anderson said. In other words, it depends upon what you are looking for price, reputation, flavor and how much you know about the product. For example, Anderson said, when it comes to cruises, there's more to a good vacation than just a great price. "Often with the best price, [the cruise] is on a ship that's dated," he said, adding that this is often true with a popular cruise line's low-priced cruises. "People think they're going to get the best Royal Caribbean vacation, but they don't get the ship they see on TV at night." And, that's the kind of information a would-be traveler won't find by just programming his computer "to find the cheapest price." It is something, Anderson said, that a travel agent will know. And the type of ship you'll be getting for that bargain price isn't the only information that isn't readily available to travelers who rely on the Internet to book their vacatons. For example, Anderson said Royal Caribbean has two ships in its Voyager class, the Voyager of the Seas and the Explorer of the Seas, which both have balcony suites. "But they have a different look to their balconies, as do the three subesquent ships [in that same class]," he said. The balconies on the more recently launced ships in that class are designed to letmore light into the deck space. "That's [information] not found on the Internet," he said. The key ... be flexible! "I can say that we see travelers waiting more and more 'til the last minute to do their [trip] bookings, hoping for a last-minute discount or for an operator to 'dump' inventory on a trip that didn't sell out," explained Pfeiffer. She said sometimes, these unsold seats end up on a discouunt website, or are given to a consolidator, who can then sell them. "I had some very attractive January prices for cruises that are run of ship," The Cruise Store's Anderson told PRIME. Not every cruise offers this type of fill-the-ship-at-the-last-minute discount, but if a traveler is able to book the date ofered, the savings can be substantial. "The price difference for the exact same cabin was nearly $400 per person," he said. But, Anderson said, again you have to know where to look The Cruise Store, which does a good deal of its business through Internet bookings, doesn't always post all its deals especailly limited-reservation and last-minute ones on its website. "My point is, we do have these specials, and we keep them on our bulletin board [in the office], " he said. "People can come in during office hours and look at [the current] specials." And, Anderson said, these last-minute deals aren't limited to just cruises. In December, his agency had attractive deals on land-based Caribbean vacations to places such as Los Cabos, Aruba, Cancun ... "I had the Peinca Resort in St. Martin, leaving out of Boston, for $599, " he said. The flexibility to depart from an airport other than Hartford, he pointed out, made a difference in the price of that particular trip. "Flexibility is it," Anderson said. "Conditions cost ... the more conditions you put on [your booking], the more you pay. He said often people say they are flexible about dates, but "then it's 'oops I have a wedding that week ... or I can't get the time off that week'." "Lay off on the conditions and you can get some deals!" he emphasized. For more informtion on the services offered through The Cruise Store, visit www.cruisestore.com