Planning Your Trip to Dublin - Dublin - page 22

agency websites, SideStep (www.sidestep.com) has gotten the best
reviews from Frommer's authors. It's a browser add-on that purports
to “search 140 sites at once,” but in reality only beats competitors'
fares as often as other sites do.
Also remember to check airline websites, especially those for
low-fare carriers, whose fares are often misreported or simply miss-
ing from travel agency websites. Even with major airlines, you can
often shave a few bucks from a fare by booking directly through the
airline and avoiding a travel agency's transaction fee. But you'll get
these discounts only by booking online: Most airlines now offer
online-only fares that even their phone agents know nothing about.
For the websites of airlines that fly to and from your destination, see
“Getting There,” above.
Great last-minute deals are available through free weekly e-mail
services provided directly by the airlines. Most of these are
announced on Tuesday or Wednesday and must be purchased
online. Most are only valid for travel that weekend, but some (such
as Southwest's) can be booked weeks or months in advance. Sign up
for weekly e-mail alerts at airline websites or check mega-sites that
compile comprehensive lists of last-minute specials, such as Smarter
Living (smarterliving.com). For last-minute trips, site59.com and
lastminutetravel.com in the U.S. and lastminute.com in Europe
often have better air-and-hotel package deals than the major-label
sites. A website listing numerous bargain sites and airlines around
the world is www.itravelnet.com .
If you're willing to give up some control over your flight details,
use what is called an “opaque” fare service like Priceline (www.
priceline.com; www.priceline.co.uk for Europeans) or its smaller
competitor Hotwire (www.hotwire.com). Both offer rock-bottom
prices in exchange for travel on a “mystery airline” at a mysterious
time of day, often with a mysterious change of planes en route. The
mystery airlines are all major, well-known carriers, and the airlines'
routing computers have gotten a lot better than they used to be. But
your chances of getting a 6am or 11pm flight are pretty high.
Hotwire tells you flight prices before you buy; Priceline usually has
better deals than Hotwire, but you have to play their “name our
price” game. If you're new at this, the helpful folks at BiddingFor-
Travel (www.biddingfortravel.com) do a good job of demystifying
Priceline's prices and strategies. Priceline and Hotwire are great for
flights within North America and between the U.S. and Europe. But
for flights to other parts of the world, consolidators will almost