TRAVEL: Cheap Airfare: Are the SAVINGS worth it?

Ok, here is my first blog relating to the post of "search engine keywords"

TRAVEL: Cheap Airfare: Are the SAVINGS worth it?
Before you jump onto a discounted flight you need to do a little research. Not to say that all discount flights are bad, but I fell into this trap only once, but twice!

My first time getting a discount fight package was in May of 2003. I wanted to suprise my husband with our first vacation. I chose Las Vegas (Yippie!). I went to all those site - expedia, discount travel, cheap tix, etc. I finally realized that it was honestly cheaper to do some leg work and get the package myself. If you go to the Spirit airlines web site (spiritair.com) you can find some great deals. There is a section titled Syber Specials that are only available to internet users. You may or may not find what you are looking for here, but I can promise that the deals are truly incredible. Some of the flights are red eyes, some you may have to change planes two or more times, but you will save!
So anyway, going back to my vacation: I have found out about this web site and saw a departing flight from Detroit to Vegas. It was priced at $99, ROUND TRIP. Generally, I found every other site to be asking for $150 ONE WAY!!! So, yes, the savings were great. The flight times were excellent as well. I immediately booked our seats.
When the time came to board the plane we discovered that we were going to be seated in the last two seats on the plane. These seats are terrible! There was absolutely no leg room! I actually had to turn to the side just so I could fit in! The entire 4 hours I had to keep my knees bent. Horrible! There is not enough in-flight drinks to make this fun!
So we finally landed and I swore to myself I would never do that again.
The flight back was a disaster too. We were supposed to leave at midnight, but Spirit Air had lost our tickets so we had to be pushed back to 1:30am. Then, they must have had a shift change, because the new employee at the ticket counter said, "You were supposed to be on the midnight flight." AAAAHHH! We ended up being able to get on the 1:30am flight.

Then, a few months later, I decide to take my hubby somewhere special for his birthday. I secretly plan a Florida vacation. I was going to go with the regularally priced airfare, but once again, I realized the savings. So, I decide to give it one more shot.
This time we got really good seats, but we didn't get to sit next to eachother. This was fine with my man because he sleeps the entire time anyway. I, on the other hnd, hated it. I was stuck between a guy who was listening to music on headphones really loud and a woman who typed on her lap top the entire flight. However, if there was an open seat we would have been able to swap so it could have gone well.

For the Florida vacation we had gotten a package deal, one that included flight and hotel. The price was right! For less than $500 we could both fly round trip and stay 5 nights in a hotel. We knew the hotel was not a 5-star, but we would only be in it to sleep anyways.
The hotel that came with the package was pretty much a dump. The hurriacanes didn't help either. In fact, there was only a roof on half of it! Still, like I said, we were only going to be sleeping there. I definately think next time I will pay the extra money and get slightly better arrangements, but at this time, saving the money was worth it. We were able to take our savings and go to all the Disney parks, a water park and Universal Studios. This is something that never would have happened if we paid for posh reservations.

My conclusion is that there are excellent "Cheap Airfare" deals. It is not always a bad idea to fly discounted, but remember, you're getting a discount for a reason. I would definately check into this for short flights. I can put up with just about anything for under two hours for that king of savings! It is also excellent if you just want to take a mini vacation. Spirit and many other airlines offer incredible deals to Vegas, New York and Florida if you book a particular flight that is less than three weeks away.