Travel Alert! Southwest launches 50% off sale to Vegas

by Grant Martin on

Down to the last $1000 in your 401K? Why don’t you take it all to Las Vegas and put it on black? The nation’s largest low cost carrier just kicked off a fare sale to Sin City from ALL of it’s departure cities for flights through March 11th, meaning prices have officially reached “dirt cheap.”

With the Vegas economy in the dumps right now, it’s also a great time to score some cheap hotel rooms and package deals for your stay, so once you’re on the ground you can also save cash.

The fare sale runs ONLY from today until tomorrow, December 31st, and you have to travel by March 11th, so get your itinerary together quick, make a decision and pull the trigger.

Heck, you might even see some snow while you’re there.

Southwest Airlines not your style? Many of the legacy carriers matched the fares that were just published, so if you want to earn your precious miles, fly in first or skip a connection, make sure you check with your favorite airline as well.

Also, you can ONLY get these fares directly from Southwest — traditional online agents like Kayak and Orbitz don’t quote their prices, so make sure you go directly to the Southwest website to cash in.

[Thanks to George over at Airfarewatchdog for pointing us out to the sale.]

Woolworth’s, the famous shopping icon, is closing its doors in the U.K.

by Jamie Rhein on

“My cousin said that all the Woolworth’s in Britain are closing starting tomorrow,” my mother-in-law said today as she was driving me to run an errand outside of Cleveland where we’re visiting for a few days. “He’s very upset.”

Her cousin, who we visited a few years ago, lives in Cornwall. The economic downturn has meant curtains to this bargain shopping icon that was still making a go of it in Great Britain after the U.S. stores closed.

I remember going to the Woolworth’s in State College, Pennsylvania with my best friend when we were in the 5th grade. Those were in the days when it was considered safe for kids to ride their bicycles all over town. Our mission, mostly, was to get a Coke at the lunch counter and take our pictures in the automatic photo booth, the kind that spits out a long vertical strip of four.

When F. W. Woolworth, the company that was created in the U.S. in 1879, closed its doors in the U.S., I must have been living overseas because I only have a vague recollection of the news.

Now, that the 807 stores are closing across Great Britain starting tomorrow, including the one in the photo taken by Redvers in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, I feel a whiff of nostalgic sadness. Folks in Great Britain, according to this article posted at TwinCities.com, feel the same.

Woolworths are friendlier than mega stores like Wal-mart and Target. The lunch counters say stay awhile. The goods always seemed like just the right amount of choices. Sure, it’s great to load up a cart at a big store, but the choices can be too many, and the cart can easily be overloaded with things we really don’t need by the time we reach the checkout counter.

Woolworth’s stores seem to evoke literary themes found in novels like To Kill a Mockingbird–the small town “How de dos.” Walmart greeters sure have a lot of pressure to make us feel welcome in the rush to find a bargain. Although Grant recently wrote about London not being as expensive as a place to buy gifts as he thought it would be, the options are decreasing. Too bad.

Thanks for the memories Woolworth’s.

Don’t buy the whole plane

by Tom Johansmeyer on

There’s only one shopping day left until Christmas, and you’re in a bind. Like me, you haven’t done any shopping yet. Fortunately, unlike me, you have at least $100,000 to throw down on a present for your wife, girlfriend or both. So, don’t be greedy and hoard all that cash for yourself. Give a friend the great gift of fractional jet ownership. The Flexjet 25 Expert Guide Edition jet card offers access to a fleet of private planes and the opportunity to visit places where the normal people won’t be allowed to bother you.

This is a deal that you seriously don’t want to miss. Lay down your American Express Black card by the first of the year, and you will buy love for the 12 months that follow. For prices that start at $107,900, your friend or relative (Who are you kidding? You’ll buy it for yourself …) can get some art-buying help from Barbara Guggenheim or play get schooled by World Series of Poker bracelet winner Antonio Esfandiari. Culinary, golf and tennis programs are available, too.

Basically, this is your ticket to an absurd level of conspicuous consumption.

Many inexpensive last minute holiday airfares do exist

by Jamie Rhein on

You’ve probably noticed the stories about how airfares have dropped and air traffic is down. Two weeks ago, I flew from Copenhagen to Columbus on two airplanes that were not full. The Continental flight from Copenhagen to Newark was empty enough that most people had seats between them.

The flight from Newark to Columbus was even more roomy. The row in front of my daughter and me was empty, and we had that hoped for seat between us as well.

With less people flying that means more competition to entice passengers to fly. My mom is heading to New York City for the holidays. This past May, she took the bus because of gas prices and soaring airline costs. Her ticket plane ticket would have cost almost $400 at the time.

She thought about the bus again until last night when I searched for airplane tickets on a whim. There were several options for a $166 airfare when I used the variable date function. Delta and Northwest were the least expensive flights, but the flight she wanted was on Delta to LaGuardia which she prefers over JFK. Flights into Newark, at least the ones I saw, were more expensive.

Not only was she able to score a flight to the airport of choice, she also was able to get flights that are direct and leave at the times she preferred. At first, it looked like she’d have to leave at 6 a.m., but after going to another day of departure, an early afternoon flight to New York appeared. She also wanted to book a return flight later in the day than what originally appeared. Again, further looking found the exact flight out of LaGuardia.

After using Travelocity to find choices, I went directly to Delta’s web site to book the ticket. The amazing detail is that she’s leaving on Monday, just days from booking the ticket. Cheap flights so close to departure used to be unheard of.

So, if you’re thinking of going somewhere for the holidays, look into flying. It may be far less expensive than you thought. These are the days of deals. To find the best ones, look for flights during the week. My mom is flying out on a Monday and back on a Wednesday. In this case, the direct flights were less than the flights that went through another airport. I am amazed.

Be broke now and in the future by trading stocks for vacations

by Mike Barish on

Suppose you want to go on vacation but you also want to be able to pay your bills. What do you do? Well, you could mortgage your financial future by paying for your trip with stocks that you own. I’m not suggesting cashing out your stocks, making yourself liquid and then purchasing the trip. I mean actually paying for your vacation with stocks. Nonsense? Well, according to a New York Times article, one tropical resort chain will allow you to do just that.

Elite Island Resorts, a chain of luxury hotels with locations throughout the Caribbean, will accept payments in stock for vacations booked by January 31, 2008. And the really interesting part? They’ll value the stock at its July 1, 2008 closing price. Since that’s before the market went further south than Elite Island Resorts’ locations, you do stand to gain in the short-term if you elect to take them up on their offer.

Now, before you go ahead and call your broker, keep in mind that these are luxury resorts, so you’ll need to trade in more than one share of your worthless Citigroup stock. And they cap the amount of stock value that you can use at $5,000. They selected close to 100 applicable stocks for the promotion and feature some major names whose stock prices should, hopefully, bounce back in the future. That said, when they do increase again, would you rather have those in your portfolio or some vacation photos on your mantle?

So how much is a sanity break worth to you? Your kid’s college fund? Your ability to afford renewing your magazine subscriptions? Because you may want to consider hanging onto those stocks and being the one that reaps the benefits of an economic upswing rather than letting some luxury hotel chain increase their net worth.

As for me, I prefer to stay liquid. All of my money is tied up in whiskey.