Trax metacrawler launches with First Class Frenzy upgrade game

by Grant Martin on

The newest metacrawler in town, Trax, is wooing users with added incentive to abandon their old Kayaking ways: upgrades. The travel search engine, which is undoubtedly scrapping for market share, just launched First Class Frenzy, an online trivia game where you can answer a host of questions and virtually “move up to first class.” Winners of the online game will be entered in a drawing to win an upgrade on their next flight.

“What sort of upgrade” you ask? According to Trax knower of things Ani Custer, winners will receive one, one way, domestic upgrade good for a year on a major US carrier. One winner will be selected every month, starting on July 16th. Fair enough. If you’re not traveling on the carrier that Trax selects, you can always give away the certificate.

As far as how Trax performs as a search engine, the site has real promise. I just ran a comparison search from DTW – CDG for a week in July and Trax found a fare $75 lower (via vayama.com) than Kayak did. I’ll be sure to include it in my battery of engines next time I run a real search.

Virgin Atlantic’s 25 year anniversary sale fares starts right……NOW!

by Grant Martin on

Midnight sure is a strange time to be posting deals, isn’t it? Well, there’s a reason. Virgin Atlantic is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary in a variety of ways over the course of the year, and one of them is in launching a crazy 24 hour fare sale from Newark to the United Kingdom. Starting RIGHT NOW.

According to our source inside of the company, you’ve got all day to book tickets as cheap as $186 one way from Newark. Once availability runs out, you’re out of luck. So for those of you on the west coast, start clicking. For those of you who just woke up on the east coast, you’d better hope that there’s something left.

The best part is that you can book tickets from July 1st, which means the fares are vaild for high summer season. So grab the kids, scrap the staycation and book tickets to London this summer. Combined with the falling Pound Sterling, you may not get a chance like this again for a while.

Book tickets at VirginAtlantic.com soon, the offer expires at midnight on June 10th.

Booking an Emirates flight? Save $100 today only

by Grant Martin on

If you’ve got any transoceanic travel coming up in the next few months, today is a great day to buy tickets. Why, you ask? Because Emirates, one of the best airlines on the planet, is having a one day sale where they’re taking $100 off any online booking.

This could be your opportunity to try out one of the hottest carriers for a discounted price, or maybe get $100 back on the primo-expensive first class tickets from New York to Dubai. Emirates is also one of the only two carriers flying the A380, so if you’ve been itching for an excuse to fly one of the giant creatures of the sky, you’ve got it. And for those of you in Australia and New Zealand, Emirates offers very competitive service between your two countries (in addition to the A380 SYD-AKL route.)

Check out details and book your tickets at Emirates.com.

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Memorial Day 2009 airfare deals — it’s not too late!

by Grant Martin on

Memorial Day is right around the corner. Have you got plans yet? Forget the fact that we’re under three weeks away, the economy is flailing and that your job is on the brink. If you factor a little bit of flexibility (read: sick day) into the equation there are still a ton of great deals on flights around the hemisphere. To help you out, we’ve compiled our top favorite deal from every large city in the US to give you some inspiration. Starting today, we’ll be updating the post every day to keep the best deals on the radar, all of the way up to May 22nd. So keep coming back and you just might find a good excuse to get the heck out of dodge.

Check out your city below to find our favorite deals. Got one of your own or found an expired fare? Leave your findings in the comments below and we’ll update the post!

For each of the fares below, run your search on Kayak.com. No hoops to jump through or tricks required!
Atlanta: Frankfurt — $430
Delta and KLM have crazy cheap prices to Frankfurt, Germany right now. Search for Thursday or Friday departures with returns on Monday or Tuesday to get the best price. (updated May 8, 1000)

Boston: San Pedro Sula, Honduras (pictured) — $294
Book tickets from BOS – SAP from Friday night to Tuesday afternoon on American. Use the flex search if you want greater availability. (updated May 8, 1005)

Chicago: Guadalajara, Mexico — $280
Prices are $15 more expensive to depart on Friday instead of Thursday, with returns on either Monday or Tuesday. Fly Delta jets, and don’t worry about the swine flu. (updated May 6, 2220)

Detroit: San Pedro Sula, Honduras — $296
Take Monday off and you can get away with a super cheap fare to SAP, just a hop skip and a jump away from the gorgeous Caribbean coast. (updated May 6, 2220)

Dallas: Monterrey, Mexico — $285
It’s less than three hundred bucks to get to Baja, Mexico on Continental Airlines. Stock up on tequilla, Kahlua and Vicodin to make it worth you dollar. (updated May 6, 2220)

Los Angeles, California: New York City — $267
There’s nothing between Los Angeles and New York anyway, right? Why not take advantage of the current fare wars, book a ticket on any number of available carriers and dates and visit your brothers and sisters on the right coast. We still have our Christmas trees up! (updated May 8, 1009)

Miami: Central America: <$250
Hey Miami: You have no excuse to be staying home this Memorial Day. Nearly every Central American city is in sale from your airport this May, all at excellent prices. Throw a dart into a map and you’ll find a good price. We promise.

Minneapolis: Panama City, Panama (pictured) — $324
While Honduras is still a great bargain at just over $300, we’re going to go ahead and recommend Panama City, Panama as an interesting alternative. Because you’re cooler than Detroit or Boston anyway, aren’t you? Depart on Thursday or Friday and return on Monday or Tuesday. (updated May 8, 2220)

New York City: San Salvador, El Salvador — $251
San Salvador, El Salvador to Central America is the Greenpoint to New York City. Best to get down there while us mouth breathers haven’t figured it out yet. The schedule is wide open on Delta. (updated May 6, 2220)

San Francisco: San Jose, Costa Rica — $462
Why not visit the cool San Jose and stop by Costa Rica for the weekend? You can book tickets on United and Frontier Airlines for travel between Friday and Tuesday. Too expensive? Join the other Californians and fly to the east coast for around $250 (updated May 8, 1015)

Seattle: Juneau, Alaska — $396
Visit your neighbors up north before the pesky tourists destroy all of the fun. You can fly on Alaska Airlines on an open schedule and even get double miles! (updated May 6, 2250)

Washington DC: San Pedro Sula — $231
Once again, Honduras brings in a ringer with sub $250 fares from the nation’s capital on Taca airlines. Depart on Friday afternoon and return on either Monday or Tuesday to get the best price. (updated May 8, 1015)

Not happy with your candidate? Try mixing your former city pair with a latter destination. Chances are, that city is on sale for a reason and it’ll be a similar price from your home town.

Happy hunting!

OpenSkies offers two for one tickets to Amsterdam and Paris

by Grant Martin on

With demand for airline tickets quickly shrinking, premium carriers like OpenSkies are scrambling to incentive passengers to continue flying Business and First class products overseas.

OpenSkies’ latest promotion is aimed at goosing that first class demographic. Passengers interested in traveling in their “Biz Bed” class (effectively their lie flat, premium product) can now get a free companion ticket when booking seats to Amsterdam or Paris from New York.

Before, it would have cost anywhere from $3,500 to $3,900 for the pleasure of this service. Now, if you bring a friend that price is effectively halved. $1,750 for a round trip first class journey across the Atlantic during the summer is a bargain.

Book you travel between now and May 31st to take advantage of the offer at flyopenskies.com.

Curious about the transatlantic OpenSkies experience? Check out Gadling’s first hand review.

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