I went to Disney World in March 2008 and had a great vacation for almost 1/2 the price than one of the cheap vacation packages I was looking at. I was about to buy one of the packages and then read an article I suppose from the owner of ViewTickets.net or so. I then booked my trip to Disney World for almost 50% of what the tour operators or other websites quoted.
Here is how I planned and booked by trip:(1) Hotel booking: Hotels around Disney World are very expensive. I have used priceline (http://www.priceline.com) before but did not know whether it would work to get a cheaper hotel in or around Disney World. So went to Priceline and selected Orlando and 4 other surrounding areas to book my hotel. I bid on $70 per night and got HOLIDAY INN where the regular price was $179 per night.So 5 days cost us around $370. I heard that you can also get some other hotels like Best Western, etc for $55-60 per night using Priceline.
(2) Disney World Tickets: I booked my tickets from ViewTickets.net ( http://www.viewtickets.net ). I could compare the different types of tickets and prices at this website. They have Magic Your Way tickets including Base tickets and Park Hopper tickets. We purchased 5-day Park Hopper tickets. The 5-day park hopper tickets were just $12 more than the 3-day park hopper tickets. My kids wanted to go to water park but then we changed my mind. You can have the waterpark option added to your tickets at www.viewtickets.net in case you are interested. Looks like they are some kind of Walt Disney World partners as the tickets are sold by Disney World themselves. We ordered the tickets online and picked them up at the park ticket sales counter.
(3) Car Rental: Again we used priceline and got an intermediate car (Chevy Malibu) for $30 per day.
(4) Flights: This is the only part we booked ourselves. We looked up flights using SideStep.com and booked roundtrip tickets for $169 each.
So we ended up our trip at $2300 including meals for all 4 of us.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Best Strategy to Buy a New Car
This has been my personal experience with the 3 cars I have brought so far. The first car I bought was a good learning lesson. I would like to start by mentioning you my strategies for the first and then the remaining two cars.
My first car (Good deal but not the best)
When I was shopping for my first car, I called the local dealers and got their quotes. Also I tried other online websites to get a better quote like autobytel.com and also carsdirect.com. Then I negotiated within the dealer quotes and called the other dealer telling the previous one quotes and finally I settled on a deal. But, after a month or so I read and heard people got better deals too on the same configuration car that I purchased. I read some folks in my area got the same car for $650 lesser than I got but on ther other hand there were many who paid more than I had. I would say this was not the best deal I got but was not bad either.
My 2nd and 3rd Car (An Ultimate Strategy I would Recommend to Everyone)
This time I decided that I would do much better and I was well informed about the online sites and other forums available. First step I took is decided upon the exact configuration car that I needed. When I get quotes it was much easier comparing APPLES-to-APPLES. So I called my local dealers in NJ (New Jersey) and got all their quotes and also dealers in the Philadelphia area since it was closer to where we live. I got almost 14 quotes. Do not start negotiating yet as if you call the same dealer again and again the salesperson will be annoyed. Next step is to visit http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com on the web and search for the car you want. example: "2007 Honda Accord EX". This will lead you to different post by other users and the best prices they got. Try to reply to their posts only if would need additional information. Otherwise try to see the dealer in your area like in my case in NJ or PA and get the name of dealership. Check for the user who said he got the lowest $XXXXX.XX price in NJ or PA and get the dealer name if he has not posted. Now call that dealer and tell that your buddy just bought the car for $XXXXX.XX. They will most certainly give you the same or a near offer. Tell them to send you an email with their quote and now use this quote with your nearest 3-4 dealers to negotiate. Now your nearest dealer knows that the offer you got is legitimate after seeing your printout. They will be very inclined to match it. Otherwise you can always go to the dealer that just sent you the lowest quote.
Believe it or not...... I have got the lowest possible prices for both cars I bought. This experience I just mentioned was with my last car. By this strategy I have bought the 2nd car for $2800 and 3rd car for $2450 below INVOICE price respectively. Remember this is below invoice price and not MSRP.
My first car (Good deal but not the best)
When I was shopping for my first car, I called the local dealers and got their quotes. Also I tried other online websites to get a better quote like autobytel.com and also carsdirect.com. Then I negotiated within the dealer quotes and called the other dealer telling the previous one quotes and finally I settled on a deal. But, after a month or so I read and heard people got better deals too on the same configuration car that I purchased. I read some folks in my area got the same car for $650 lesser than I got but on ther other hand there were many who paid more than I had. I would say this was not the best deal I got but was not bad either.
My 2nd and 3rd Car (An Ultimate Strategy I would Recommend to Everyone)
This time I decided that I would do much better and I was well informed about the online sites and other forums available. First step I took is decided upon the exact configuration car that I needed. When I get quotes it was much easier comparing APPLES-to-APPLES. So I called my local dealers in NJ (New Jersey) and got all their quotes and also dealers in the Philadelphia area since it was closer to where we live. I got almost 14 quotes. Do not start negotiating yet as if you call the same dealer again and again the salesperson will be annoyed. Next step is to visit http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com on the web and search for the car you want. example: "2007 Honda Accord EX". This will lead you to different post by other users and the best prices they got. Try to reply to their posts only if would need additional information. Otherwise try to see the dealer in your area like in my case in NJ or PA and get the name of dealership. Check for the user who said he got the lowest $XXXXX.XX price in NJ or PA and get the dealer name if he has not posted. Now call that dealer and tell that your buddy just bought the car for $XXXXX.XX. They will most certainly give you the same or a near offer. Tell them to send you an email with their quote and now use this quote with your nearest 3-4 dealers to negotiate. Now your nearest dealer knows that the offer you got is legitimate after seeing your printout. They will be very inclined to match it. Otherwise you can always go to the dealer that just sent you the lowest quote.
Believe it or not...... I have got the lowest possible prices for both cars I bought. This experience I just mentioned was with my last car. By this strategy I have bought the 2nd car for $2800 and 3rd car for $2450 below INVOICE price respectively. Remember this is below invoice price and not MSRP.
Which VOIP (Voice over Internet) Phone Service Provider is better ? Sunrocket or Vonage or Skype ???
Many of you especially who have not used any internet based phone service wonder whether it is worth making the switch from the traditional phone service. I have been using Sunrocket for last 2 years and also have friends and colleagues at work who have used Sunrocket and Vonage for more than a year.
Sunrocket
When I signed up with Sunrocket in early 2005, the service was just launched and in the intial 15 days we had problem with the bandwidth and staying connected with the phone. I even considered switching to Vonage or even going back to the traditional phone service with Verizon. Sunrocket gave me assurance that the problems had been temporary as they are working towards large volume of subscribers. Indeed Sunrocket did stand up to its word and till date I have been a loyal Sunrocket customer. In last 2 years the phone service has been stable with just one outage of 2 days and even that issue was addressed in a prompt manner. The issue I had was more with the gizmo which was replaced by overnight mail. The best part I like about their service is its very cheap. I pay $199 per year (which is approx. $17 per month) and initially I got the handset free. I recommend users to renew their contract if they wish to extend during the time when they advertise $99 per year promotion to their new customers. When you get on phone the customer service rep will try to honor the promotion given to new customers also for its existing customers for being "loyal" or may be thats their retention strategy. In addition you get voicemail, caller ID and an additional line included in the above cost. Best of all you get unlimited calling to US and Canada. CallerID gives names and number. I have used 911 service with Sunrocket and it has worked well when I had to call for emergency in the family.
Vonage
Vonage is also a decent VOIP service and it costs around $26 per month to enjoy it. Quality is same as Sunrocket now, but a couple of years ago it was a different story with Vonage being the better. They charge $5 for additonal line. CallerID does not give names. You need 11 digit dialing for all local calls where as others don't. I heard that porting the local number you have with Vonage sometimes may be a problem when you decide to switch from Vonage to someone else.
With both Sunrocket and Vonage you get very competitive international call and with either one you choose you get the basic phone service with unlimited calling for $17 and $26 respectively unlike $70+ I used to incur with Verizon.
Skype
Skype is a good PC to phone service unlike the other two above which are phone-to-phone service and what most of the people prefer. Have some very good international calling rates available. A major con is you require a PC with good internet connection. Well! You would say the above requires a good internet connection too......but at least with Sunrocket you can forward your calls by setting up your online profile with them and get the calls forwarded to your cellphone or an alternate location. But you don't have the choice with Skype.
RECOMMENDATION: Based on my personal experience and also on the feedback I received from my friends, I highly recommend Sunrocket. Quality has been great and had no major issues with the service for last 2 years. As I said I used to make a 911 call in 11/2005 and everything worked out perfect too. Additional free phone line serves great too. Domestic calling is free and also to Canada. Recently they also introduced 8 cents/min rate to India. And I call Germany sometimes too and its very cheap to any European countries as well.
DISCLAIMER: Author has expressed this opinion based on his last 3 years of experience using VOIP and also utilizing opinions of 9 of his colleagues and friends that have been using either Vonage, Skype or Sunrocket for at least one year. Author personally uses Sunrocket (for last 2 years).
Sunrocket
When I signed up with Sunrocket in early 2005, the service was just launched and in the intial 15 days we had problem with the bandwidth and staying connected with the phone. I even considered switching to Vonage or even going back to the traditional phone service with Verizon. Sunrocket gave me assurance that the problems had been temporary as they are working towards large volume of subscribers. Indeed Sunrocket did stand up to its word and till date I have been a loyal Sunrocket customer. In last 2 years the phone service has been stable with just one outage of 2 days and even that issue was addressed in a prompt manner. The issue I had was more with the gizmo which was replaced by overnight mail. The best part I like about their service is its very cheap. I pay $199 per year (which is approx. $17 per month) and initially I got the handset free. I recommend users to renew their contract if they wish to extend during the time when they advertise $99 per year promotion to their new customers. When you get on phone the customer service rep will try to honor the promotion given to new customers also for its existing customers for being "loyal" or may be thats their retention strategy. In addition you get voicemail, caller ID and an additional line included in the above cost. Best of all you get unlimited calling to US and Canada. CallerID gives names and number. I have used 911 service with Sunrocket and it has worked well when I had to call for emergency in the family.
Vonage
Vonage is also a decent VOIP service and it costs around $26 per month to enjoy it. Quality is same as Sunrocket now, but a couple of years ago it was a different story with Vonage being the better. They charge $5 for additonal line. CallerID does not give names. You need 11 digit dialing for all local calls where as others don't. I heard that porting the local number you have with Vonage sometimes may be a problem when you decide to switch from Vonage to someone else.
With both Sunrocket and Vonage you get very competitive international call and with either one you choose you get the basic phone service with unlimited calling for $17 and $26 respectively unlike $70+ I used to incur with Verizon.
Skype
Skype is a good PC to phone service unlike the other two above which are phone-to-phone service and what most of the people prefer. Have some very good international calling rates available. A major con is you require a PC with good internet connection. Well! You would say the above requires a good internet connection too......but at least with Sunrocket you can forward your calls by setting up your online profile with them and get the calls forwarded to your cellphone or an alternate location. But you don't have the choice with Skype.
RECOMMENDATION: Based on my personal experience and also on the feedback I received from my friends, I highly recommend Sunrocket. Quality has been great and had no major issues with the service for last 2 years. As I said I used to make a 911 call in 11/2005 and everything worked out perfect too. Additional free phone line serves great too. Domestic calling is free and also to Canada. Recently they also introduced 8 cents/min rate to India. And I call Germany sometimes too and its very cheap to any European countries as well.
DISCLAIMER: Author has expressed this opinion based on his last 3 years of experience using VOIP and also utilizing opinions of 9 of his colleagues and friends that have been using either Vonage, Skype or Sunrocket for at least one year. Author personally uses Sunrocket (for last 2 years).
Friday, January 5, 2007
Air Travel in India (Flights/Airline Reservations/Network)
Airline Reservation For Travel Within INDIA
My personal choice of picking an airline when I travel to India is the customer satisfaction, on-time departure, condition aircrafts in their fleet and last but not the least SAFETY.
(1) Indian Airlines (Founded: 1953) One of India's oldest airline with a fleet size of 59 aircrafts. It is fully owned by Government of India. It has been involved in 20 incidents (including accidents).
Reservations: https://www.indian-airlines.org/internetbooking/ialform1.aspx
Cities served: http://indian-airlines.nic.in/Scripts/networkmap.htm
(2) Jet Airways (My preferred choice because of new fleet and sound safety record) This is my top rated airline with fleet of 58 aircrafts. Considering the 58 aircraft fleet size in short span of 13 years (unlike Indian Airlines that has 53 years) it indicates that it has grown more than 4 times faster than the oldest serving airline 'Indian'. Average age of aircraft is 6 years, making it much safer. No incidences reported till date making it safest amongst others.
Reservations: http://www.jetairways.com/Cultures/en-US/HomePage.htm
Cities served: http://www.jetairways.com/Cultures/en-US/About+Us/Our+Network/
(3) Air Deccan Operates on small routes where sometimes bigger giants like Jet or Indian may not fly. Has 40 aircrafts in its fleet and avg age is 7 years. Still a good option, but so far till date I have seen more propeller aircrafts rather than jets in its fleet.
Reservations: http://www.airdeccan.net/airdeccan/home.asp
Cities served: http://www.airdeccan.net/airdeccan/Destinations.asp
(4) SpiceJet A low cost carrier airline with a small fleet of 9 aircrafts. May be a good choice for bargain travellers. Reservations: http://www.spicejet.com/
Cities served: http://www.spicejet.com/airports.asp
(5) Kingfisher Airlines This airline has the fastest growth with 22 aircrafts to its fleet in 3 years. But, it may as well be the power of its CEO with funds pouring from his other ventures.
Reservations: http://www.flykingfisher.com/
Cities served: http://www.flykingfisher.com/schedule.htm
(6) Go Air Another low cost airline with a very small fleet of 7 aircrafts.
Reservations: http://www.goair.in/
Cities served: http://www.goair.in/about_us_destination.asp
(7) Air Sahara Another decent airline compared to Jet Airways which is very competitive. Has 28 aircrafts with average age of 7 years in its fleet.
Reservations: http://www.airsahara.net/
Cities served: http://www.airsahara.net/s2v1/AboutUs/network.aspx?id=5
(8) Air India
Domestic Fares: http://www.airindia.com/page.asp?pageid=458
Reservations: http://www.airindia.co.in/yatrik/yatrik.jsp
Conclusion: For business travellers or ones looking for ontime departures and expect better service, I would recommend Jet Airways followed by Air Sahara. For people looking for great bargains, I would recommend Spicejet, Go Air followed by Kingfisher.
How to Find Best & Cheap Airline Tickets
For Domestic Airline Tickets within USA (Travel within United States or Canada):Follow the options in the sequence given below.
(1) Sidestep.com: Dont forget to select nearby airports checkbox. Also, do not specify any time of departure or arrival in the initial search as you can filter them in the results
http://www.sidestep.com
(2) PRICELINE.com: If you are really flexible about timing of the day and do not care if your flight departs/arrives very early in the morning like 6am or late evening then PRICELINE is your best option. I have used this a few times for my air travel and you get great deals. Some times even 50% or even lesser than the cheapest ticket you could get elsewhere.
http://www.priceline.com
(3) Hotwire: Their concept is similar to priceline and thus becomes my immediate next choice after Priceline. Based on my 10 years of experience with Priceline, I still rate the bargains I got from Priceline much better. But, if you had not got the tickets for the price you are looking for by now then you should certainly give Hotwire a try.
http://www.hotwire.com
(4) Orbitz: Orbitz is good especially if you like to go on a tour or make multiple stops at different places. Even for roundtrip travel it may sometimes work out to be good. But, I personally would recommend this option for multiple-stop travel.
http://www.orbitz.com
(5) Expedia: Expedia is more popular ....but in my opinion most of the times you get better results with Sidestep. But, if you have time to shop on the web and have tried all the above options then I would recommend giving Expedia a try.
http://www.expedia.com
NOTE: Some people have never tried priceline and initially in a dillemma to use it or not. In my opinion, the shortest and sweetest way to explain this is Priceline and also Hotwire work with the unsold seats the airlines have which would otherwise go unsold and offer its customer at a much cheaper price. Well! Then you would think why would airline give the tickets at lower rates. Say better get something rather than nothing on seats that would otherwise go vacant. It's like a lost revenue.
PS: In my opinion, if you are collecting airline frequent flyer miles, the best choice is to use them when all the above options are not working within your budget or retain them for a time when you have to book personal travel tickets at a very short notice when the airline fares turn out to be very expensive.
(1) Sidestep.com: Dont forget to select nearby airports checkbox. Also, do not specify any time of departure or arrival in the initial search as you can filter them in the results
http://www.sidestep.com
(2) PRICELINE.com: If you are really flexible about timing of the day and do not care if your flight departs/arrives very early in the morning like 6am or late evening then PRICELINE is your best option. I have used this a few times for my air travel and you get great deals. Some times even 50% or even lesser than the cheapest ticket you could get elsewhere.
http://www.priceline.com
(3) Hotwire: Their concept is similar to priceline and thus becomes my immediate next choice after Priceline. Based on my 10 years of experience with Priceline, I still rate the bargains I got from Priceline much better. But, if you had not got the tickets for the price you are looking for by now then you should certainly give Hotwire a try.
http://www.hotwire.com
(4) Orbitz: Orbitz is good especially if you like to go on a tour or make multiple stops at different places. Even for roundtrip travel it may sometimes work out to be good. But, I personally would recommend this option for multiple-stop travel.
http://www.orbitz.com
(5) Expedia: Expedia is more popular ....but in my opinion most of the times you get better results with Sidestep. But, if you have time to shop on the web and have tried all the above options then I would recommend giving Expedia a try.
http://www.expedia.com
NOTE: Some people have never tried priceline and initially in a dillemma to use it or not. In my opinion, the shortest and sweetest way to explain this is Priceline and also Hotwire work with the unsold seats the airlines have which would otherwise go unsold and offer its customer at a much cheaper price. Well! Then you would think why would airline give the tickets at lower rates. Say better get something rather than nothing on seats that would otherwise go vacant. It's like a lost revenue.
PS: In my opinion, if you are collecting airline frequent flyer miles, the best choice is to use them when all the above options are not working within your budget or retain them for a time when you have to book personal travel tickets at a very short notice when the airline fares turn out to be very expensive.
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