Jaunted

Travel News / Airline News / Airlines / Budget Travel / Travel Deals / → All Tags

The Era of the $9 Airfare Sale is OVER

In super boring but totally relevant news, today is the day that airlines must advertise their airfares inclusive of taxes and fees. While this means no more "$9" sales from Spirit and truly cheap "Cheeps" on JetBlue, it does usher in an era of not having to click all the way through several screens to find out the real price of a flight. Also, you probably won't be as quickly excited as before.

The official rules behind the move are here, and Virgin America has even gone so far as posting this notice on their site, just in case prospective passengers see the new, full-fare pricing and think "whoa, what the heck?"

So really this is just a note to keep this in mind next time an airline runs a fare sale and the prices display a little higher than we're all used to seeing. In the end, you're not paying more; you're just seeing the total earlier on in the booking process.

[Photo: Spirit]

Bus Travel / Megabus / Atlanta Travel / Budget Travel / Free Stuff / Travel News / → All Tags

10,000 Free Tickets from Megabus' Newest Hub in Atlanta

Big news for travelers in the south! Budget traveler favorite Megabus has just expanded their US route network to include a new hub in Atlanta, Georgia. From the ATL, Megabus will run to 11 cities, of course with all routes and all seats starting from their usual $1 (plus 50 cents reservation fee).

The 11 cities from Atlanta are: Birmingham, AL; Mobile, AL; Montgomery, AL; Charlotte, NC; Chattanooga, TN; Knoxville, TN; Memphis, TN; Nashville, TN; Gainesville, FL; Jacksonville, FL; and Orlando, FL.

That's a lot of Alabama and Florida! With the news comes a giveaway, naturally. Megabus has 10,000 free seats on the new routes, for travel from November 16 to December 16. Enter promo code ATL10K to knock the cheap fares down to FREE.

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Budget Travel / Money / Switzerland Travel / Zurich Travel / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Zurich is Lucky It Has Its Looks

Disregarding Scandinavia for a moment, one of the most expensive cities you can visit in Europe is Zurich, Switzerland. This is the land of $8 lattes, pay-to-pee portapotties and four-star hotels asking four digits a night. In other words, it's not exactly for the budget traveler...until we drop the secret that direct flights to ZRH from the US often feature in those crazily discounted airfare sales. Getting a roundtrip for $350 sure defrays the cost of eating pretty little Swiss sweets every day.

Luckily for Zurich (and the rest of Switzerland, really), the scenery and atmosphere is so appealing and so intoxicating that it's easy to be distracted from your fast-emptying wallet. That $8 latte? Get it and walk down the River Limmat, and you'll look up from your caffeine to the scene pictured above. $8 doesn't seem so bad all of a sudden.

What we're saying is: when faced with excellent travel deals to expensive destinations, don't write off the idea immediately. Instead, plan. Your travel budget will be lower, so prepare for a higher daily budget. And—this is huge—do not complain about the inflated price of McDonald's. TACKY, especially when someplace like this is likely just around the corner.

[Photo: Jaunted]

Volunteer Travel / Budget Travel / Costa Rica Travel / Voluntourism / → All Tags

Actually Affordable Volunteer Vacations to Asia, Africa or Latin America

Volunteer travel can be fulfilling, and costly. Some trips, depending on their location and duration, can cost do-gooders between $2000 and $3000 dollars, not including airfare.

But, Rustic Volunteer and Travel is now offering affordable volunteer travel opportunities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, for a tenth of the price. One of Rustic's most popular volunteer packages to Atenas, Costa Rica, starts at only $357, including accommodations with a local family and 3 meals a day.

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Restaurant Week / Food Travel / Budget Travel / Las Vegas Travel / Las Vegas Restaurants / → All Tags

Sin City Will Give Itself Over to Gluttony for Las Vegas Restaurant Week

Yes, that is a donut on top of fruit salad

Sometimes in life, you just crave a nice, white-tablecloth meal with ice water in glass goblets and an attentive waiter who recommends the fish. Sometimes, however, you can't always indulge that desire if you also want to travel, buy nice things, pay rent/mortgage, etcetera etcetera. This is why we rejoice whenever Restaurant Weeks come around, when top-notch restaurants discount three-course prix-fixe meals to a level where it's totally cool to have a spontaneous date or skip the carry-out, opting instead for the white tablecloths and glass water goblets.

The next city to feed its foodies is Las Vegas, during their restaurant week(s) August 29 - September 11. Unlike the simplicity of NY Restaurant Week, Las Vegas will have different pricing levels based on level of restaurant and quality of meal: $20.10 & $30.01 Lunches and $30.10 & $50.10 Dinners. What you choose really depends on your budget and what must-eat-at restaurant you want to cross off your bucket list.

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Miami Travel / Spa Month / Hotel Spas / Travel Deals / Budget Travel / → All Tags

Summer in Miami Means Spa Month: Our Top Six Deal Picks

Humidity. Hordes of families and low-season bargain seekers. Thunderstorms. Rain. Yes, this is summer in Miami. But 'tis also the season to get your spa on, as Miami Spa Month is now underway.

The Restaurant Week-esque promotion, organized by the city's tourism board, actually runs for two months, but let's hold the 'can't they count in Miami?' jokes and just get to the good stuff, hmmm? That would be the $99 treatments—available at participating spas from South Beach to Sunny Isles—from now through August 31.

You can peruse the list of spas here—most of them are located inside Miami's best known hotels, which will help with your summer getaway planning. Being able to drift from your hotel room to the pool to the spa and back to the pool is one of the true joys of destination resorts, no?

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Restaurant Week / Boston Travel / Food Travel / Budget Travel / → All Tags

Save Room for Dessert: Boston's Restaurant Week Gets Cooking in August

Huge news! Boston has announced the dates of their upcoming Restaurant Week. Okay, so you're like, "oh whatever, another Restaurant Week," right? While it's true that three-course dining on a budget does occur quite frequently around the country these days, Boston's Restaurant Week is special because it features many seafood restaurants...fresh seafood.

The dates to add to your iCal? August 14-19 and August 21-26, 2011. There's over 200 restaurants to choose from, and meals have more options and lower prices than you find at NYC Restaurant Week. It's a pretty worthy daytrip diversion if you don't live in Boston; we've done it before and you know we're already looking at BoltBus prices for this one.

Now for the pricing and featured restaurants:

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AYCJ / AYCJ 2011 / All-You-Can-Jet Pass / JetBlue / Airfare Sales / Budget Travel / → All Tags

No JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Pass for 2011, You Say? Do a DIY AYCJ!

The Jaunted HQ flag flies at half-mast today since yesterday, when JetBlue revealed they'd not be bringing back the popular All-You-Can-Jet Pass for 2011. This shocked some of the country's (and world's) dedicated budget travelers and they collectively cried a single tear, erased penciled-in plans for fall, and commiserated on Twitter. @Andrewhyde's remark on Twitter yesterday even made a Top Tweet: "All You Can Jet was the most innovative thing out of the airline industry since trying to be profitable."

Although we're still holding the hope that the AYCJ Pass will return in some form in the future*, for now there are ways to get your travel on and do a sort-of DIY AYCJ:

· Follow @JetBlueCheeps
All former AYCJ-ers should already know this, but JetBlue's deals twitter churns out awesome last-minute fares nearly every Tuesday. Since we know some flyers used their AYCJ passes to travel each weekend and still work somewhat normally, Cheeps are for you. Best of all, you don't have to plan much ahead. Last week, Cheeps had $29 from Las Vegas to Long Beach or $69 from JFK to West Palm Beach. Not too shabby.

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Travel TIps / Road Trips / Cars / Budget Travel / Rental Cars / → All Tags

Six Common Sense Tips for Keeping Your Rental Car Fuel Costs Down

A gas sign this week in downtown San Diego

In San Diego last week, we snapped this photo of gas priced at $4.73 per gallon just before picking up a rental car. Suffice it to say that we were a tad freaked out about a budget road trip we had planned, as the fuel costs had the potential to raise our outlay into not-so-budget-friendly territory. In the end, after following some common sense approaches to keeping gas costs down, we had a great time for less money than we thought.

If you're heading out on a road trip or renting a car this summer, bookmark these tips and you should do just fine:

· If offered an upgrade from compact or economy to an SUV, decline or inquire about other options.
Oftentimes (it happened twice in the last month to us), rental car agencies have sold through their economy or compact car options. As an apology move, they may try to upgrade you to an SUV. If you have a family or gear to tote, this could be a huge benefit. If not, your first thought should be fuel consumption and how this supposedly free upgrade will end up costing you at the pump. Don't be afraid to tell the rental agent that you're watching your fuel consumption and would prefer a smaller or hybrid option, if available. This approach recently scored us an SUV with eco-driving system that relayed fuel consumption information to us directly on the dash.

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Airlines / Airline News / LCCs / Budget Travel / Macau Travel / China Travel / Spring Airlines / New Routes / → All Tags

Planning a Trip to China? You Should Know About Spring Airlines

This week seems to be new airline week—or at least new to us—as we’ve shared the secrets to a cheap Europe vacation thanks to XL, a frugal find to visit down under, and today we want to talk about Spring Airlines. Just like everyone else this week they have some pretty cheap airfare—like around $100 roundtrip before taxes—but any money you save on airfare you’ll be blowing upon arrival. That’s because these planes are going to Macau.

In case you haven’t heard, Macau is like the Asian version of Vegas, so expect plenty of gambling, boozing, and spending—all while having an awesome time of course. Spring Airlines is looking to cash in on the booming travel market, as they just started up service between Shanghai and Macau each day of the week.

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Airline News / Airlines / XL Airways / New Routes / Budget Travel / Europe Travel / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / → All Tags

XL Airways Will Get You to Paris This Summer for Around $700

Getting to Europe this summer is probably going to be fairly expensive thanks to rising oil prices, as well as the fact that everyone wants to cross the Atlantic for vacation. Finding cheap airfare might not be impossible if you know where to look, especially if you consider thinking outside the box when it comes to your air carrier.

Although we haven’t flown them ourselves (yet), we’re thinking that you might want to give XL Airways France a chance once the weather gets a little warmer. They’re hardly some random new airline, as they’ve been kicking around France and Europe since 1995. Hopefully that means that you won’t be left high and dry when its time to get a new stamp in your passport.

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Baggage Fees / Politics / Checked Baggage Fees / Budget Travel / Airlines / Airline News / Luggage / Baggage / → All Tags

Get Your Luggage Late and Uncle Sam May Refund the Baggage Fee

At this point we’re all pretty much accustomed to those pesky airline baggage fees, but that doesn't me we have to accept them. In the past, Uncle Sam has wanted to stick his nose into airline business regarding these charges, but it looks like the latest idea might actually be something that we can totally support.

The Department of Transportation isn’t really complaining about airline baggage fees—although deep down we sure they hate them too—but they are sick of the fees when your baggage doesn’t even arrive as promised. They’re proposing that the airlines refund your baggage fee if your roller, duffel, or steamer trunk doesn’t arrive at the baggage belt when you do.

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