Deal of the Day

September 30, 2011 - FrugalTravelGuy

Outside Magazine is offering a 10 Day Trip to S. Africa. More information can be found here

Enter to win a $10,000 VISA gift card + Free GoGo internet for 40 years!

Amtrak is giving double points for travel by Nov. 23. Enter your login information then register for the promotion. If you don’t have an Amtrak account, email Bryce (Email) to get a 500 point referral bonus! You must travel on Amtrak within 90 days to receive referral. Bryce is helping out with Deal of the Day

Angik S

Actually booking at the last minute may be advantageous. Every Tuesday at 1AM CST, United releases cheap last minute fares for that weekend http://travel.united.com/ube/efares/us/eFares.do. American also does the same http://www.aa.com/netsaaver/viewNetSAAverFareSales.do . Delta is pretty stingy but they too have a few last minute seats. These are great for last minute vacation plans
Anonymous

How about for international travel? Are any days cheaper to travel and to book than other days?
Infinion

For calling: I've been using a setup that has worked out well for my needs. It does rely on a a decent internet connection, but of course, so would Skype or other alternatives. I only have an iPad with me for computing power when I travel. I usually carry a US based cell phone for emergencies that works pretty much anywhere, but is very expensive to use of course. Anyway, I'm using an ipad app that forwards voice data through my google voice number. All google voice number, to my knowledge, are US based, which makes call home to other US numbers free, including land lines and cell phones. Calls to my local location (for example the UK) are over the internet to the google voice servers in the US, then over hard phone lines back into the UK. It think it runs between 2 and 10 cents a minute to the UK, but still an order of magnitude cheaper than using a cell phone without a local SIM. It's worked wonderfully for us. Google voice allowed some other nice perks, both at home and away. For example, I asked family when calling in non-emergencies, to call my google voice number. If I happened to have the ipad with me, and online, I could actually answer the call. If not, google voice would take a voicemail, email it to me (in text and audio) and notify me of a missed call. Pretty neat, all free until you make an international call, and then, the rates are very reasonable.

Anyone interested could just google 'ipad google voice' or something and likely find out how to set it up.
jung lee

Quick 1K Southwest points for those who have active Southwest CC's. Go to waymorerewards.com/bonuspoints, watch the 2 minute video, complete the form at the end of it, and collect 1K points. Again, to get the points, you must have an active Southwest CC.
Remy

Actually, I was born in France and now live to the US. At the beginning, I was trying to call in France with my French phone, in the US. Now, the problem is when I go to France, AT&T wants to charge me way to much for a minute of voice.
My best two methods are: Skype (as mentioned), and Google Voice. Google Voice is by far my preferred option. When you log in Gmail, you have the ability to call in the US (left column) or anywhere else in the world for a fee (1 cent a minute or to the US, same for France). The quality of the line is awesome, I even use it for work. The other benefit is that if you create a Google Voice number, you can even receive call on your computer, as long as you are logged in Google/Gmail. Definitely awesome when traveling.
QueenofGeek

Re: Skype, both people don't need to have a Skype account in order to use the service. I call regular non-Skype phone numbers all the time from my iPhone and Air.
Rzheng

You can sign up a google voice, it can be used on laptop/ipad/smart phones with internet.

Iphone & Android have this app called Talkatone, which turns your google voice to an actual phone, allowing you to send/receive texts and make/receive calls if you have a free wifi that has decent connections. I have used that to call home multiple times when travelling aboard and it worked flawlessly. If someone tried to call you when you don't have wifi, you will able to get his or her voicemail or missed call next time you log in.

You can also sync your mobile voicemail at home to Google Voicemail, allows you to access mobile voicemail when you're abroad w/o incurring any roaming.
Rzheng

You can setup an Google Voice account, allows you to make/receive calls if you have a laptop with internet connection.

On top of google voice, you can use an app called Talkatone on iphone or other smart phones(if you have access to wifi). I have used that numerous time when travelling aboard.

You can also sync your mobile phone voicemail to Google Voicemail, allows you to receive your voicemail while travelling aboard.

If you are not connected to wifi, you will receive voicemails/text/missed calls next time you log in.
Tai

@Rzheng I also use Google Voice and it works great when traveling abroad. I was excited to hear about Talkatone in your post but after further investigation it only works for iPhone/iPad/iPod not android. Oh well..:(
Craig

On #6, AFAIK Allegiant is the only airline in the US that isn't displayed on Kayak at all – Southwest's specifics arent, but if a Southwest routing is available, they're displayed on the "Airlines" section to the left with "Get Info" – click on that and you'll be sent to the Southwest site. Southwest is rarely the lowest-price airline for far-in-advance purchases, though.

Another tip when flying on routes with heavy non-network ("low-cost") competition is to search for your trip as two one-way flights rather than a round trip – it's frequently cheaper to fly one way on one airline and return on another, especially since on routes with heavy non-network competition the network carriers will usually offer one-way pricing. I've gotten lower prices on NYC-Florida several times by mixing airlines – my last three trips were combinations: JetBlue/Continental, JetBlue/US Airways, and Continental/AirTran.

Deal of the Day

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