Welcome to Travel School
written by Sally Black
Vacation Package Deals
- What Makes a Package?
Vacation packages usually combine a minimum of two travel components together. The most common type of package is “air and land”
which obviously combines your flight with your hotel accommodations. Another combination is called a “fly/drive” meaning you
get your flight and rental car, it's then up to you to find a place to sleep. The great thing about vacation packages is that
they usually afford you the cheapest prices for your chosen destination.
You will note that there is never any breakdown of the individual components for vacation packages. You may be able to choose from
an “ala carte” menu of choices, but additional nights, classes of service or amenities are treated as “additional fees”. Again, this
is to offer the travel suppliers a means of pricing protection.
- Where Do Vacation Packages Come From?
A tour operator or “wholesaler” usually creates packages. This tour operator may be working in conjunction with an airline or hotel
chain or may work completely independently. The tour company then goes out and “negotiates” the best deals with the different
travel suppliers. Usually airlines and hotels give the tour operator wholesale rates...meaning the lowest rates possible. The catch
to this deal is that the tour company cannot by any means sell these flights or hotels separately. Then must always be used in
conjunction with another deal. This way the wholesale price is hidden from the consumer. For example, you might see an airline ticket from
New York to Orlando priced for $159.00 Round trip. Also three nights in an area hotel may cost $129.00 per night.
You may shop further and find a package deal which includes an airline seat on the exact same flight along with three nights
in the same hotel and free theme park tickets for $379.00. Again, the reason the package is so much cheaper is because it combines
wholesale rates, not published or retail rates.
- Charter Flight Savings
Another way travelers save money with vacation packages is by the use of charter flights. Popular destinations and large resorts
often hire aircrafts to fly travelers to specific locales. Planes are rented from regional or independent carriers. These flights
are just as safe, comfortable and offer the same services as most scheduled flights. The difference is that there may only be one
flight per day so you may not have any choice of flight times. Missing your flight can cause major havoc. Sometimes charter flights
might be hired to pick up passengers in Boston, New York and Philadelphia enroute to the Caribbean. That same plane then returns
via the same route with travelers finishing a week of sun and fun. Charter fares are far cheaper than any schedule published
airfares. You cannot buy a seat on a charter flight individually without it being part of a package vacation. Still their low rates
add to your overall savings when purchasing a vacation package.
- Online Vacation Packages
Booking vacation packages online is the one of the final frontiers of online travel technology. Although it may seem simple to the
traveler to click a button and check the price and availability of airline tickets, rest assured there is very complicated computer
programming happening behind the scenes to make this all possible. Vacation packages are far more complicated, technologically speaking,
because you must check flight availability, check hotel availability, then compare and sort the two before returning the results.
Few of the online booking systems for vacation packages offer complete reliability. For this reason, VacationKids recommends using
using email to work with one of our trusted travel agent experts to book your vacation packages. Our travel agents book such huge
volumes that they receive discounts and upgrades from suppliers that cannot be found in any automated booking system.
Click here to connect to us at the VacationKids Travel Agency
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