Looking for Last-Minute Deals? Try the Internet

From all reports, many travel suppliers are benefiting mightily from their ability to post last-minute deals on the Internet--eve-of-departure bookings for seats, rooms and cabins that otherwise would go unsold.

Three segments of the travel industry are especially active in last-minute discounting:

Hotels

Holiday Inn’s last-minute Holideals program guarantees a minimum 40% off the nondiscounted room rate for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 200 to 400 participating locations worldwide each week. On a recent weekend, a Washington, D.C., Holiday Inn cut prices from the rack rate of $149 to $83.40 under the program. In Atlanta, a room that normally costs $73 was available for $44. Posting of a given weekend’s participating destinations goes up the Monday before at https://www.basshotels.com/holiday-inn.

Radisson Hotels lists its last-minute bargains every Wednesday at https://www.radisson.com/RAD/Hot_Deals/HotDeals. A recent visit to the site showed a Denver-area hotel had cut its nightly rate from $119 to $79. And Radisson’s rates are often lower than those of major Internet hotel discounters for the same site. We compared Radisson’s Hot Deals with Hoteldiscounts.com (https://www.hoteldiscounts.com), which is often an excellent source for discount rooms, and found that Radisson met or beat the Hoteldiscounts prices on most occasions.

Best Western invites consumers to register for e-mailed promotions at its 3,900 worldwide locations by visiting https://www.bestwestern.com/programs/promoreg.html.

Choice Hotels posts “hot deals” of the week at https://www.choicehotels.com/res/hotdeals/hotdeals.html. Though an average of only 20 (and on a recent week, only four) of the chain’s more than 4,900 hotels worldwide seems to be posted at any one time, the discounts are fairly attractive and worth considering. A recent trip to the site listed a summerlong special at a Washington, D.C., Clarion Hotel, which included a junior suite with a kitchenette, valet parking and even a bottle of wine for just $135 a night (slashed from rates as high as $209 regularly).

Days Inn is another good option for cut-rate rooms. Go to https://www.daysinn.com/ctg/cgi-bin/DaysInn/deals. While Days Deals isn’t the easiest site to use, it produces results. After going to the page, click on the state where you’ll be staying, find a participating hotel, then click on reservations and type in your arrival info. You’ll be given a page full of miscellaneous pricing information. Look for the lowest price, which should be noted as “Days Deals” pricing, and you’re on your way to reserving a room at up to 25% off.

Hyatt Hotels and their special last-minute deals are found at https://www.hyatt.com/subscribe.html. To search for hotels with other special offers, check out https://www.hyatt.com/special_offers/index.html, and to view summer-only discounts of up to half off at 50 participating hotels, take a look at https://www.hyatt.com/greatdeal/index.html.

Rail

Here’s a surprise from an unlikely source of discounts. Look for Amtrak’s special last-minute reductions--its so-called Rail Sale--at https://reservations.amtrak.com/rs.html. The page is updated each Monday, and although it specializes in last-minute travel at rates of up to 70% off, the seats aren’t necessarily just for the coming week.

And the prices are exceptional. On the day we recently tested the site, we found one-way steals like Miami to Savannah, Ga., for $35.50, Chicago to Philadelphia (and vice versa) for $58, and Orlando, Fla., to Miami for $19.50. Once you settle on a route that pleases you, book it online to get the Rail Sale price. (Availability, deadlines and other restrictions vary.)

Air

Most major U.S. airlines have been offering last-minute domestic fare specials on their Web sites--absurdly reduced fares on tickets they are selling off faster than plummeting stock shares. Soon the airlines got the bright idea of e-mailing these special deals as part of a free service, giving subscribers a first crack at the grab bag of last chances each week.

Although procedures vary by carrier, most subscribers (subscription is always free) receive an e-mail from the airline on a particular day of the week (most often Wednesday) advertising sales for certain routes. Flights have many restrictions and are usually limited to travel only on the coming weekend (hence the Wednesday mailings); in some cases, though, the fares are good for advance purchase and for as far ahead as three months.

Savings are substantial, particularly on US Airways and Southwest Airlines. In a series of test runs comparing the specials with fares for the same route on different dates, we found reductions ranging from 20% to 80% off the airline’s own advertised rate. Even when compared with a popular online discount-flight booker, the last-minute deals were unbeatable.

Some airline sites to contact:

Alaska Airlines: https://www2.alaskaair.com/listserv/WebMail.asp

American Airlines: https://www.aa.com(click on “AAdvantage Join”; you need to join in order to subscribe).

America West: https://www.americawest.com/specials/sp_subscribe.asp

ATA: https://www.ata.com/common/subscribe.htm

Continental: https://www.continental.com/vs (click on CO.O.L. travel specials).

Delta: https://www.delta-air.com/skymiles/enrollment/enroll_main.jsp (you need to sign up for SkyMiles first).

Northwest: https://www.nwa.com/travel/cyber/cyber_reg.html

Southwest: https://www.southwest.com/special_offers/email/email.html

TWA: https://www.twa.com/dcspecials/hd_specials_signup.html

US Airways: https://www.usairways.com/esavers/enroll.htm