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#Six best travel-booking tricks you re not using Peter Dazeley | Getty Images Booking travel: You're doing it wrong. It took time after the recession, but Americans are traveling more these days. Leisure travel is expected to rise 1.9 percent this year, to more than 1.63 billion trips, according to the U.S. Travel Association. But travel costs are rising, too, with the average airfare creeping closer to the $400 mark and PKF Hospitality Research predicting hotels' profits will surpass their prerecession peak this year. 1) Search solo A quirk of travel-booking systems is that they will show the lowest fare available to seat your entire party, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com. "Everyone's fare is the same price," he said. So if there are two of the very cheapest seats left, one that's a little more expensive and four that are pricier still, it's only that last option that will show up in your family of four's search. Start your search for a party of one, and then scale it up until prices change. So long as you don't mind booking the seats in several transactions, you could save by snaring cheaper fares for a few people in your party. (Doing so doesn't make it any harder to find seats together, Seaney said.)
2) Stack rewards There are often-missed opportunities here to double, triple or even quadruple dip. For starters, there are the free reward programs offered by the hotel, car rental company or airline. Then there are rewards from the travel booking site, which are increasingly robust. Hotels.com offers a free night for every 10 booked; Expedia awards two points per dollar spent. Some online malls operated by the airlines and other deal sites like Ebates.com , offer extra cash back when you link through them to book. At FatWallet.com. you'll get up to 5 percent cash for bookings on Priceline and 6.5 percent on Travelocity. among other deals. And finally, there are extra points, miles or cash back to be had booking with a rewards credit card.
3) Hunt for coupons Before you book, check for airline, hotel and booking site coupon codes. JetBlue offers weekly "cheeps" on Twitter under the handle @JetBlueCheeps, and many other airlines offer regular deals through their email newsletters and websites, said Anne Banas, executive editor for SmarterTravel.com. "That can help you shave off some dollars," she said. Other codes offer to double or triple reward bonuses that would normally be earned on the booking, a boon for travelers angling for a free flight or hotel stay.
4) Time your hunt Data from FareCompare.com has found that the pool of cheap seats in the system is highest on Tuesday afternoons. "Around two-thirds of sales occur Monday night, and airlines scramble to match them Tuesday," Seaney said. It's no guarantee of a cheap fare, but it can't hurt to try.
5) Be truly flexible The newest crop of booking engines aims to help travelers who don't have a destination in mind, Banas said. On sites such as Adioso and Google Flights, their search results show the best current fares out of your home airport over a given time frame.
6) Capitalize on price drops Not certain you're getting the best deal? Some sites are set up to help you get a refund. Booking site Tingo.com scans prices and automatically rebooks hotel stays if it spots a better price, sending you a credit for the price difference. There's also Yapta. which sends an alert after a booked airfare's price drops, offering tips and airline policies to help secure a credit for the difference. (A word of caution: Airline change fees of up to $200 and restrictive policies often make reimbursement tough.)
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