For
your European
vacations, the major travel websites offer a wide variety of
products
and services such as: airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental
cars, vacation packages, etc. Travel
websites aren’t
perfect. Therefore, I suggest that you visit more than 3 websites to
compare
prices and also visit a supplier's website directly. Airline and
hotel-brand
websites often undercut travel sites, and they may offer additional
perks like
bonus reward points or miles through their loyalty programs.
The downside is that finding
the
perfect deal for your European trips
can be time-consuming and bring negligible savings for the amount of
time you
spend looking. Additionally, often you find that the cheapest deal
isn’t always
the most cost effective. For example, on my European vacations
I’ve found that
the additional lay-overs and stops related to the lowest air fares
wasted
so much time
and energy that it didn’t compensate for my cost savings.
To help you
along, I recommend 4
travel websites to get you started. I have used Priceline and
Travelocity and
was satisfied with them. I haven’t tried Expedia or Air France yet. I’m probably
going to
use Air France for my next trip
(especially if I go to France.) I’m
sick of the
food on U.S. airlines and hear its better on Air France.
PRICELINE.COM
Priceline
Travel Services offers all 8 of the nation's major
full-service airlines, their regional affiliates and over 20 of the
best-known
international carriers work with Priceline Travel Services. With
Priceline's
airline service, customers fly with confidence, knowing that all travel
is on
major name-brand airlines.
Clear here to book now or learn
more: Priceline's
deals allow you to save an additional $325 by booking flight + hotel
together. 
Priceline
has gained incredible press as the a great source
for cheap airline tickets for your European trips. Priceline
currently offers price guarantees if
you find a lower fare within 48 hours after booking. How Priceline
works is shoppers say where and when they want to fly. Priceline will
check the lowest available fares for that time. Or, you can "Name your
own price" and place a "bid" on that ticket. Priceline searches for
airlines with seats available on those days, and tries to buy the seats
for that bid amount. If the bid is rejected as too low, you can
increase the bid and try again in 72 hours. Many times, you will be
shown an offer that was accepted if your original bid was rejected. You
can choose to take that option or bid again in 72 hours.
Priceline
also gets special mention in reviews for its great deals on luxury
hotels. The
catch is that the Priceline's best deals are available through its
bidding
tool, where you specify desired price, location, hotel class and dates,
but you
don't know the actual hotel until after you've booked.
ADVANTAGES:
- Reviews say a bid of about $100 per night often gets you
a great deal on a 4-star hotel;
- Consumer Reports says that Priceline can turn up deals
that can save you 40% or more on your European vacations;
- You can also choose Priceline's biddng engine for bigger
discounts on blind bookings.
Click below and save!
DISADVANTAGES:
- The major downside is you do not know which airline you
will be
flying, or even the times of your flights until after you agree to
purchase the ticket;
- Sometimes the site will require that you choose a
different airpport before it will accept your bid;
- Flights purchased on Priceline tend to be non-refundable;
- You don't earn frequent flyer miles.
TRAVELOCITY.COM
Travelocity is the second largest travel agency in the U.S. Travelocity
is confident in the strength of its partner relationships and the skill
and passion of their team. Their customer "Bill of Rights"
assures that when you book with them and encounter any problem, they
will work to make it right. Visit
Travelocity for all your European Vacation destinations and Package
deals 
Travelocity
scores extra points for its European vacations
packages, which bundle
air, hotel and rental car
together, as well as last-minute packages. After upgrading its site
recently,
Travelocity also scores well in booking ease and website usefulness.
There are
no online booking fees for vacation packages, but make sure you
understand the
cancellation policy.
ADVANTAGES:
- Travelocity is also beta testing
a new RSS fare alert service that sends you messages when pre-selected
destinations drop below 20%;
- If you purchase airline tickets
and notify them within 24 hours of your purchase that you've booked the
wrong
dates, they'll rebook your tickets without charging a change or
cancellation fee;
- If you find a lower rate within
24 hours of booking, they will refund you the difference, plus a $50
off coupon
for purchase of future travel.
Click below for great Travelocity deals!
DISADVANTAGES:
- Online registration is required;
- Watch out for cancellation fees.
The website and your itinerary state that the cancellation fee is $25
up to the
total cost of your reservation.
EXPEDIA.COM
Founded as a division of Microsoft in October 1996, Expedia also
operates Hotels.com, Hotwire.com and TripAdvisor.com making them one of
the largest travel retailers in the world. Expedia was awarded
a
Webby Award for "Best In Travel Website", and the top rating in
customer satisfaction for online travel agencies by the American
Customer Satisfaction Index. Click on the link below for:
Top Travel Deals
at Expedia.com! 
ADVANTAGES:
- Because of their size, Expedia can
often negotiate the lowest prices on airfares, hotels, and
vacation packages.
- The
"Best Price Guarantee" insures that if you find a lower price, within
24 hours of your booking, Expedia will refund the difference.
- The J.D. Power travel satisfaction
survey said Expedia is the best for vacation packages and is easy to
use.
Click
below to book your Eureopean vacation on Expedia:
DISADVANTAGES:
- Expect to pay a $5 booking fee; additional
fees for booking by phone or requesting paper tickets.
- All
original departure cities from Expedia must be within the U.S., so if
your not in the U.S. you have to login Expedia's local sites (ex.
Expedia.ca for Canada) to see what's available in that country.
AIR FRANCE
Click here to
find the best fares on Air France.
It’s
a fact that airline service has deteriorated.
In general, it’s more a result of increased
price competitiveness, traffic volume, and dealing with security
procedures
rather than deliberate airline negligence. Next time I take a European trip
I
plan to try Air France 
because:
- It has a 4 star rating
from SKYTRAX;
- It has very good air
fare prices (especially to France);
- It’s food rating is good
(If deteriorating air service is
the trend, at least
try and get the best
food possible).
Click below to book a trip or find out more about AIR FRANCE deals!
