Way back in September, I devoted a column to the wisdom of booking spring break travel as soon as possible. Great advice. Unfortunately, I didn't heed it.
Procrastinators like me need a game plan. Here was mine:
1. Check availability at our preferred hotel and book it knowing dates can shift according to our flight schedule. (Warning: Some hotels ding you for one night's stay if you outright cancel.)
2. Stay up late on a Monday or Tuesday to search for cheap flights. Use the "flexible date" search option. Nab the best flight sequence, then and there.
3. Just for the fun of it, check the airfare the next day to see if prices have dropped, because you can usually cancel or change flights fee-free within 24-hours.
5. Book a rental car; inventory in some markets is tight and prices are on the rise.
I devised this approach with the help of Cheapoair.com travel expert Thomas Spagnola. "Airlines process demand for flights over the weekend so specifically searching on a Monday or Tuesday usually returns the lowest fares," Spagnola once told me. He recommends checking airfare late at night, "when many airlines launch major fare sales."
In September, I had looked at airfares to our destination, found them shockingly high and postponed further exploration for a day or two — or 70. All those passing days had not been good to me. But by booking late on Tuesday night, prices weren't much higher than they had been months ago.
