Kayak plug

I assume everyone here has heard of Kayak.com and it's spiffy keen-o travel searches. But, if you haven't, I'm here to tell you they kick some serious money saving booty! Back in January, as soon as the June date was set for my SIL's wedding out in Cali, I found a deal on a flight ($228 from ATL to LAX) that we waited about an hour too long to jump on (shot up to $270 while we were mulling it over). So then the hubby and I both signed up for kayak price alerts and decided to wait for the next great deal. And ever since then we've been watching the prices rise to $295 and $318 and $325 with conversely sinking hearts.

Now, I'm not promising that this same thing will happen to you, but, just as we were beginning to seriously lament our lapse in judgement for not scoring the $228 tickets months ago, Kevin sends me an instant message from work at about 8:30 this morning saying he's in the process of getting us tickets for $218! He'd checked his Kayak alert and there it was, the deal of the year just for us! I shot Kevin's GA resident brother and sister an email right away, letting them know about the deal and hoping against hope they'd get online (I'd tried calling, but to no avail). The deal died about 30 minutes after Kevin found it but we got our 3 needed tickets and Kevin's brother got my email and got the same deal for his family of 5! The other great thing about Kayak is the prices they list include taxes and fees and everything. Our itinerary says our tickets were $178 but going through Kayak we didn't have to be surprised when the real price was $40 more.

Moral? Maybe there isn't one except to share my rejoicing for our awesome find. Or maybe it's that if you're vigilant enough and take advantage of some of the great email alert systems available out there, fabulous deals can come your way too. Yeah... I'm pretty sure that's it. :-)